The OTHER Generation X: The Final Round
by invincible13matt
Summary: Drake and the others begin the final attempt to break the fiends' power over the world. Will they succeed? If you read and enjoy, please review.
1. What to Fight For

Author's note: Yes! Here it is! After much delay, I bring you my next pitiful installment!

And now, without further ado (I HATE ado!)

The OTHER Generation X- The Final Round 

Chapter 1- What to Fight For

"Yugi Mutou!" Drake said. "But you went so far into retirement that no one could find you! Even though there were rumors that you were playing underground… but still!"

"Yeah." Keith said. "No one could find you, and almost every government was looking for you. They wanted you for a tactical advisor." Keith looked slightly bemused at this prospect.

"Well, yes. They did. But I didn't want to be bothered. I've dealt with too many problems, I just wanted some peace and quiet with my friends. I knew about Matt, and I asked him to help me stay low. And he was such a great help to me. I feel like I am in his debt, even if he is no longer with us."

"But… how did you find him?"

"I was one of the few people he was in almost constant contact with. I helped him out of Egypt, and one of my distant relatives knows these Alps pretty well. They told me of the legend of the Point, and I told Matt, who somehow found it."

"Didn't you say that it was impossible to find without knowing where it was?" Flynn asked Brooklyn.

"_Almost_ impossible. _Almost _impossible. I said it was _almost _impossible to find unless you knew where it was. And remember, Matt has the tracking skills of a ninja, so he can find anything regardless of how hard it is for a normal person. And I swear, that eye of his detects that which is concealed."

" 'That which is concealed'?" Helen asked.

"In other words, hidden stuff. Stuff like secrets. Once, he walked into a room full of people and started rattling off each person's deepest secret. Needless to say, he was kicked out pretty quick. But man, was he laughing!"

"Matt _laughed_?" Helen asked.

"Well, in an evil, nasty kind of way that he tends to do." Brooklyn admitted.

"Yep, that's Matt." Drake said.

"And do you have something against Matt?" Yugi asked Helen.

"Well, uh, he's a criminal!"

"Not really." Yugi stepped down off the stairs and walked closer to Helen. He was only a little taller than her, but he had far more physical presence than her, and she was dwarfed by it.

"What are you talking about? He may have helped you, but he slaughtered all of those innocent people! The entire globe wants his head! How can you associate with him?"

"He suffered for every one of the lives he took."

"What are you talking about? He was never caught!"

"There are other ways to suffer besides being caught by the law enforcement of the world."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't have time to explain myself. We need to plan what we're going to do next."

Drake was hit by a sudden wave of indecisiveness and anxiety. "Uh…"

"What's wrong, Drake?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, you look tense." Brooklyn said.

"Well, I, uh, that is, I, well… I DON'T KNOW!!!" Drake finally spat out.

"What the…?" Flynn said, rising from his seat at the couch. Unlike the others, he hadn't left the couch when Yugi had walked down the stairs.

"Is there something you need to say?" Yugi asked.

"I… I'm not sure if I want to stay in this fight." Drake said.

"Why?" Keith asked.

"Well, look at out success rate. We haven't had a single absolute success in all of our tries at this. We usually fail in one way or another. And there are the times when everything starts to fall apart… someone gets hurts, someone's always hurt, and without the usual scapegoats gone it's going to be one of us. And after this last incident, I'm not so sure that I can keep going…"

"You're giving up?" Helen asked.

"That's not like you." Flynn said.

"Yeah." Keith agreed.

"It's just that… I liked Matt, he was one of the best friends I ever had, and now because of this, he's gone. I… felt for Julie. I think I might have loved her. And now… she's in the back, just as good as dead, if not worse. It's not worth it to try and beat these guys… the cost is too great."

"Are you trying to convince us not to leave?" Flynn said. "Cause it won't work on me. I'm going even if I have no backup."

"And I'll follow Flynn to the death." Keith said. "He's my best friend, we'll go down fighting at the least."

"But… that would mean… you're going to your deaths! That's not rational." Drake protested.

"When have you ever been rational?" Keith asked. "We all know you're not the brightest bulb in this bunch."

"Yeah, that goes to Keith." Flynn said.

"So you guys should be able to see that this is foolish too! At this point, without Matt, we have a terrible chance of surviving."

"Yes, but that's not the point!" Flynn said.

"Then what is the point?!?"

"This is not some kind of hero's mission." Yugi said. "This is suicidal, at best. We are contemplating entering one of the most heavily militarized zones in human history. There are fiends everywhere, and the most powerful are lurking about as well. If we're not careful, this mission will fail before it even starts. No one will remember us, even if we do succeed. No one will know who stopped the flow of fiends, because we will probably die in the final encounter. But the point of this mission is not for our good, though if we do survive it will aid in that.

"This is a mission for the good of humanity. And not only that, now, because of their sacrifice, it is a mission in the memory of Matt and Julie. If we do not follow through, if we hesitate, if we do not complete this task, then we disrespect their memory. If you have such good memories of them, then pay them your last respects by finishing what they gave their life and soul for."

There was silence following the brief monologue. Slowly Drake though over what Yugi had said. All of his words made sense.

_I've been a fool. Why did I doubt? He's right, if I don't follow through with this, then I'll let my friends down. I can't do that! They're the only friends I have left! If we're going to die, might as well go down with them!_ Slowly, Drake let a small smile cross his face and nodded to Yugi. Yugi smiled.

"Good. Now all we need is a plan and we're set to go." He said.


	2. The BestLaid Plans

Chapter 2- The Best Laid-Plans

"Now that we've dealt with Drake's confidence issue, we need to talk." Brooklyn said.

"About…?" Helen asked.

"What the heck we're going to do next!"

"Well, we need to know more things before that." Keith said. "Such as, what the heck is going to happen now?"

"That's a good question. I have found out exactly why they need Julie's soul, though. It took S.C.A.N. over five minutes to finally find out!"

"Wow, that's fast." Flynn commented.

"Are you being facetious?" Brooklyn asked.

"Why would I be? What did he have to search through?"

"He had to dig through Matt' entire library, all these books that you see on the wall are also in S.C.A.N. And it took a whole five minutes for him to find it!"

"That's incredible!"

"What are you talking about? Usually it takes less than five seconds to find anything for him."

"I am not perfect." Came the metallic voice. "I cannot go any faster than how Matt built me."

"On a side note, how fast is this S.C.A.N. computer? Did Matt build the whole thing?" Keith asked.

"S.C.A.N. has a processing power of 800 Exahertz."

"Come again?"

"800 Exahertz."

"What is that?" Flynn asked. "I've never heard this prefix 'exa.' I've only heard giga, mega, kilo, and the like."

"Yes, I had guessed that its speed would be in the upper gigahertz." Keith said.

"Let's see… relative to your gigas, 1024 gigahertz is equal to 1 terrahertz, 1024 terrahertz is equal to 1 petahertz, and 1024 petahertz equals one exahertz."

"That's ridiculous! No computer could be that fast."

"But it is. And now onto more important matters. I had S.C.A.N. read through all of Matt's books in search of something seemingly relevant to the incident with Julie. As he read, he picked away at all the irrelevance."

"That was interesting, to say the least." The metallic voice said.

"Hang on a minute… is this computer sentient?" Keith said

"Huh?" Brooklyn was confused. "I don't know what sentient means."

"It's like us? It can think, feel, etcetera?"

"Yeah, it can."

"That's impossible! And isn't that a huge risk? What if it decides to take over?"

"It can't. It may be able to think, but it is programmed to be perfectly obedient."

"And I choose to be. Get on with it, Christopher, you're wasting time."

"Yes, yes. Stop asking questions!" Brooklyn produced a stack of pages. "Let's see… here it is." He said, and threw many sheets of paper to the floor. "What did Matt tell you about the gates?"

"Not much." Drake said. "He said that each guarded a level of the shadow realm, and that in each level there were more deadly creatures."

"And that is quite true. Did he mention anything specific about the gates?"

"Only on one." Keith said. "A number is inscribed on the 6th gate. 666."

"This is only legend, but there are many sources that confirm this fact. Some of these legends describe in startling detail what they believe to live behind the door. Ruling out some sources due to inaccuracies in describing the lower level beasts, we can get a general idea of what lives back there."

"Well, what is it?" Drake asked. Brooklyn kept hanging his sentences, as if trying to leave them in suspense. "And what does it have to do with Julie?"

"Well, I have to tell you another story first."

"Get on with it, then!" Drake said. He was getting rather annoyed.

"Everyone knows that most of the Pharaohs of Egypt were male. But there was one female Pharaoh who was particularly successful- you've probably heard of her. Her name was Hatshepsut."

"And what does she have to do with all this?" Keith asked. Drake could tell Keith's incredible mind was working hard to connect Julie to the ancient Egyptian.

"I'm getting there! So, as everyone knows, Ancient Egypt was an exceptionally prosperous region. Hatshepsut had many treasures, but there was one treasure that was particularly special. It seemed to make everyone who touched it go insane."

"You're not saying…" Flynn said.

"I am. Queen Hatshepsut had possession of the key to the Shadow Realm. There are scant details on it, found in some of the most cryptic scrolls Matt possess. I think he dug them up from Egypt himself. There is no knowledge of the key in any encyclopedia reference to her, or any other source."

"Why not?"

"Because Matt has the only record of it. There are two references to them- one of them is in an incomplete inventory of the palace treasury. It references, 'One gold coin, bearing the eye of Anubis, with a hole in the center, and a distinct aura.'"

"That sounds like our key." Keith said. "Still, what's the connection?"

"Well, the other document references that. It is the record of a court scribe. It goes like this…" Brooklyn threw a few more pages to the floor and began reading. " 'Today one of the men ran into the throne room holding something wrapped in a cloth. He brought it up to the man in charge of the treasury. "What is that?" The treasury said. "It is a great treasure, rumored to unlock great power. Power enough to rule the world." Said the man. "Is that so?" said the treasury. "Let me look at it." "Do not touch it!" warned the man, as the treasury reached out to take the cloth. The cloth fell open and something golden fell into the treasury's hand.

" 'In an instant his demeanor changed. Without thinking, the treasury, still holding the golden object, jumped at the man and snapped his neck. Several guards walked towards him, but he ripped them apart with his bare hands. The throne room was in turmoil. Queen Hatshepsut, against better advice, ran across the throne room and pulled the gold object from the treasury's hand. He immediately stopped. The Queen turned toward an empty chest waiting to be filled and threw the object into it. "No one is to touch that, whatever it is." She said. "I want it sealed in the back of the treasure room, now."' And so the episode ends."

"So the gold object was the key?"

"Yes." Yugi said. "It was. And as you may have noticed, Hatshepsut was unaffected by the key, much like your friend Julie is."

"So they're similar in that respect? Is that it?" Keith asked.

"No." Brooklyn said. "That's not it. In another of Matt's ancient books, there is a reference to the Shadow Realm. Naturally, he is the only one who possess the book. It says only this, 'With all gates of 5, only the key of darkness is necessary. However, for last gate, for gate 6, a greater price is necessary. A person of certain descent, from the original queen regent, must lose her soul to the number. The person must be directly descended from the queen regent, and must be from the cast-aside line, directly descended from the women of the line.'"

"So… wait… are you suggesting that Julie is somehow related to an ancient Egyptian queen?" Drake asked.

"I'm not suggesting it. I'm stating it. S.C.A.N. ran through her family tree and it turns out that Julie's ancestors came from Egypt, from some obscure branch that ran through Hatshepsut's daughter, Neferure."

"What are they talking about when they say, 'must lost her soul to the number?'" Keith said, but his eyes said he already knew.

Brooklyn's brow furrowed. "I checked that out too. It's disturbing. From the other sources, all agree that the 6th gate is not even part of the Shadow Realm. It is, in fact, a gateway to Hell itself."

"You must be joking." Helen said.

"He's not." Yugi said. "That is one of the most evil points accessible to mankind. Passing through that 6th gate will make a man less than human… after he passes through, he becomes either demonic or just one of the fiends."

"He's right. But there's a fate far worse for Julie if we don't save her. What they must do to unlock the 6th gate is offer her soul to the Lord of Hell, commonly referred to as either the Devil or Satan. What will happen is this: once both the key and Julie's soul arrive at the gate, the fiends will allow her soul to be corrupted by the gates demonic influences, and the banish it to the deepest level of Hell, where it will be tormented for eternity. Then they can unleash some kind of ultimate evil fiend on the earth, and after that happens, it's impossible to break the fiend's reign for one thousand years."

"Why is it always 1000 years?" Drake wondered aloud.

"Actually, the exact time is 948 years, but 1000 years sounds more ominous." Brooklyn gave a wry smile. "If humanity manages to survive the thousand years, those who remain will have a hard time repulsing the armies. But it's unlikely that that will happen. We need to stop that from happening at all costs."

"I agree." Drake didn't want to think about what could be behind that gate, but he didn't even want to consider the possibility of Julie being tormented for eternity. "Why is it that Satan wants Julie?"

"Don't know." Brooklyn admitted. "Nothing suggests why he would want someone from Hatshepsut's line. Probably to interrupt it, maybe there's something about them that can break the Shadow Realm."

"So what are we going to do now?" Helen asked.

"I have a plan." Keith said.

"Spill it." Yugi said.

"Okay, we go back to Drake's dad at the airport, airlift to Duel Academy, and blast our way to the sixth gate before the fiends get there."

"Is that efficient?" Flynn said.

"The fiends aren't going anywhere." Ashley said, emerging from the back room and wiping tears off her face. "They can't, they've been snowed into a cave and at the moment the closest gate in Rome is down. The closest gate is in the Pacific. They haven't been able to establish many."

"Good. Then we'd better get moving." Yugi said. He moved toward the door and everyone, including Ashley, followed him.

"Shouldn't you stay behind, Ashley?" Brooklyn said.

"I wanted to come with…"

"Why? You know you don't like watching everyone around you fight and get hurt and die."

"But… I want to find Matt."

"He's dead. Get over it." Helen said.

"I know but… I can feel something… it's as if he's not really dead, but still out there somewhere…"

"I think all that hot chocolate has gotten to your head." Brooklyn said. "Stay here. I might need you to find something at a moment's notice."

"Isn't that what S.C.A.N.'s for?"

"Just stay here!" It was the first time Drake remembered seeing Brooklyn even slightly angry.

"Okay…" Ashley flopped onto the couch. Brooklyn shook his head and entered the elevator, beckoning for the others to follow.

------------------------------------------

"Back to the Academy Island? Sure, I'll take you there. Isn't that the old King of Games?" Mr. Stizen said.

"Yeah, it is, Dad." Drake said. "We need to get there as fast as possible."

"Okay. There won't be any air traffic, so we should be good."

-----------------------------------------

Drake watched as the ocean scrolled away beneath them. The bright blue of the ocean was falsely cheerful to him, considering what could happen to someone he loved.

_What will I do if that actually happens?_ He thought. _This is getting bad… if we're not careful, we could end up fiends or worse, it seems._

"Ah, the Caribbean, isn't it lovely?" Drake's dad said from the cockpit.

"Dad, this is no time to be appreciating the scenery! We're trying to save the world!"

"I know, but you should take some time to rest and enjoy all these exotic locations."

Drake looked across the aisle at Keith. He had a set of headphones plugged in, and he was listening to a radio. His eyes widened. "CRAP! Captain, take evasive action!"

"What? What did you-" Drake's dad was cut off by a bang. Suddenly the plane's right wing had a huge hole in it. Several more bangs were let out and several more holes appeared. The plane began to lose altitude and then went into a nosedive.

"Hold on tight!" Mr. Stizen said. "This is going to be rough!" Drake strapped himself in tight and braced for impact. The plane crashed through several trees. Drake was thrown forward against his restraint, and, winded by the sudden impact, blacked out.


	3. Crashed!

Chapter 3- Crashed!

Drake woke up hanging from the seat. His seatbelt had miraculously not broken, and he know hung facing the lush green ground. Drake felt like he had broken at least three ribs. He began to unstrap himself, wincing in pain as he unsnapped the belt and harness he had been wearing in the crash. The belt clicked apart and Drake fell to the ground, wincing in pain again as he hit the ground on all fours. He stood slowly and looked around.

The others were still hanging from the plane, unconscious. All except one.

_Wait, where's Keith?!?_ Drake thought, and began to look around frantically. Then he remembered. When Keith had shouted to Drake's father to take evasive action, he had stood up out of his seat. The plane had been torn in half by the impact with the ground. The cockpit had been torn from the fuselage and was now lying several yards in front of Drake. _Oh God.. he must have gotten thrown from the plane! What if he didn't survive? _Drake moved forward to begin searching for a hopefully still living Keith.

"Wait…" someone groaned from behind him. Drake turned around. Flynn was conscious, and he looked like it was just barely. His arm was bent at a funny angle. The back of the seat he was behind had been bent in. He had an ugly bruise on his forehead.

"Flynn! Are you alright?"

"No… I think my arm's broken… and my head hurts like a bitch."

"Hang on, let me get you down." Drake moved over and unstrapped Flynn, then lowered him to the ground. Flynn lay down, breathing shallowly, his eyes closed. Drake straightened up and looked away. _Damn it, this is why I had misgivings about going out again! We've already taken a significant hit. _Drake walked out of the shell of the fuselage and into the forest. Keith, or his body, could be anywhere in front of the cockpit. _Oh, dang, Dad!_ Drake ran into the cockpit. His dad was unconscious with a huge lump on his head where it undoubtedly connected with the dashboard. Otherwise, he was uninjured. Drake breathed a sigh of relief.

_Good, he's okay. Brooklyn's probably good, Yugi's probably fine, and I after what happened back at the point, I don't really care about Prof. Helen that much.. wait, what am I thinking? Oh, it doesn't matter! Keith's in more trouble._ Drake left the cockpit, walked around to the front and began searching the underbrush for Keith. Drake looked up and noticed that there was a streak of what looked like blood on the nose of the plane.

_Oh God, that's not good…_ Drake moved farther away and saw Keith lying facedown in the foliage a few feet away. His back was torn open in a bloody red streak running from his left to his right… or was it from right to left? Drake couldn't tell and frankly didn't care. All he knew was that Keith was probably somewhere near death and had probably broken most of his bones. Drake moved closer and Keith groaned.

"What… what happened?" He said, barely audible.

"We got shot down." Drake said. "Don't you remember?"

"Vaguely… my head hurts a lot…"

"Comr on, we need to get you… somewhere." Drake reached down and pulled on Keith's arm. Keith didn't move. "Come ON!"

"It hurts… damn… I can hardly move. After I bounced off the plane I landed on my knees."

"Then I'll move you for you!" Drake pulled Keith up off the ground and over his shoulders. Keith winced in pain but made no attempt to stop Drake. Indeed, Drake thought, he probably couldn't do anything about it anyway. Drake hauled Keith back to the destroyed plane's fuselage. Flynn was still unconscious on the ground. Drake lay Keith down next to him. Flynn stirred and turned to Keith.

"What happened to you?" Flynn said weakly.

"Got tossed from the plane…" Keith responded. "I think I broke something."

"You and me both, pal."

Drake turned away. _Damn it! This is bad._ He turned away. What was he going to do if fiends found them? There was no way that he could fend off an entire brigade by himself. And with Flynn and Keith out of it behind him, it would be even harder. Drake heard someone shift behind him and turned around. Brooklyn and Yugi had woken simultaneously.

"Ow." Brookyln said, and unstrapped himself. "That was painful." He slid out of his seat and stood up. Yugi did likewise. "Where's everyone else?"

"They're over here, critically injured!" Drake said.

"Oh, dear. What happened?"

"I should be asking you that! How did you come through with not a scratch on you?"

"I don't know. Just give me the details on Flynn and Keith."

"Well, Flynn smashed his head into the seat and broke his arm, and Keith actually was thrown from the plane, skidded across the nose, and probably broke his legs."

"Lemme see." Brooklyn said. He walked over to Flynn and Keith and crouched beside them. He felt along Flynn's arm. Flynn cringed as Brooklyn felt up and down. Then, without warning, Brooklyn snapper Flynn's arm back to its original position. Flynn's eyes shot open.

"DAMN IT!!!" He shouted. "What was that for?!?"

"Your arm wasn't broken; your elbow was dislocated. I popped it back in."

"You could have warned me!"

Brookyln smiled apologetically. "Oh, yes. Whoops." He left the still-shouting Flynn and slid over to Keith.

"Don't do something like that to me." Keith said.

"I'll try not to." Brooklyn slid his hands over Keith's legs. "Lucky you. No breaks."

"Then what is it?"

"Severe sprains. You won't walk for a little while."

"How long is a little while?"

"About a week."

"That's too long!"

"Well, it can't be helped. I'm not like Matt, who can just use his awesome-ness and heal anything. All I could do is wrap it, and I haven't got anything."

"Damn…" Keith said, staring down at his ankles as if it would heal them instantly. It didn't. "What are we going to do now?"

"You are going to surrender!" came a voice from the trees. Many fiends emerged from the jungle around them, carrying various implements of destruction ranging from spears to high-powered rifles.

"Oh dear." Brooklyn said. "This doesn't look good."

"Surrender now! You cannot escape! You are surrounded. Surrender peacefully and we will allow you to assimilate instead of utterly destroying you!"

"So, what? We give ourselves up and you let us skip away, just like that?" Drake said.

"Be careful. Something tells me that there's more to this than just them wanting us dead or out of the way." Yugi said.

"Such as?"

"I do not know."

"Give it up! There's no way out of this." Said the fiend.

"There's always a way." Keith said. He steepled his fingers and closed his eyes.

"Ha! Do you actually think you can think your way out of this one?" The fiend taunted. Keith opened his eyes and met the fiend's.

"Yes. I do think I can. Otherwise, I would not try to do it. Don't you think it would be illogical to try if I didn't think I could do it? As a matter of fact, I already have a plan for getting out of here."

"Ha! Prove it."

"I don't have to." At that moment the forest was filled with gunfire. Drake's dad had finally awakened and was shooting every fiend in sight. None of them had a chance. All were killed in the deadly hail of bullets.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Mr. Stizen said. "There's a bunker over that way." He helped Keith to his feet. Flynn stood slowly and they began to run in that direction, Mr. Stizen slightly behind them with Keith.

The bunker had only been recently abandoned. There were still munitions on the walls. "Sweet." Flynn said, pulling a grenade from a box. "This is good."

"Grab some stuff." Brooklyn said. "We're going to need it."


	4. Still Got the Magic Touch

Chapter 4- Still Got the Magic Touch

Drake was grabbing ammunition out of a crate when he realized something. "Hey, where's Helen?"

Flynn straightened up from inserting grenades from a box into a belt. "You know, she was still on the plane. She was in the cockpit when we were hit."

"He's right." Mr. Stizen said. "She was unconscious in the copilot's seat last I saw her. I took her rifle to save you guys. I completely forgot to try and wake her, I was so concerned about you guys."

"That's okay." Flynn said. "She's not too important."

"That's not a very kind sentiment, Flynn." Yugi said. "Regardless of how much you like her, you two are still allies and must get along."

"Whatever." Flynn returned to putting grenades into the belt. Yugi shook his head and turned to watch the entrance. Drake felt that anti-Helen sentiment was running pretty high, and if she got into a tight spot she wouldn't get much help from anyone but perhaps Yugi. Drake didn't much care.

After a quick raid of the military bunker's supplies, Drake and the others began to head out, newly outfitted to combat the fiends. Each had a belt of grenades(of various types) from Flynn, and everyone had restocked their ammunition. Flynn had found a bolt-action sniper rifle in the back of the bunker and was now carrying it strapped to his back. Keith, ever the lucky one, had found an entire rocket launcher, fully supplied with rockets, in a crate off to the side. Writing on the box claimed that it was one of the newest to roll off of military production lines.

"I can't wait to test this out on a fiend." Keith said, sporting a maniacal grin.

"Don't get hasty now." Brooklyn said.

"Yeah, that thing is as dangerous to you as it is to them." Flynn said.

"I know that! But I want to watch them fly through the sky." Keith said. "I've always found that funny."

"It is, but just be careful not to blow us up with it." Drake said. They hiked back to the plane to pick up Helen. She was still knocked out in the cockpit. Brooklyn gave her a quick poke in the ribs and she sat up.

"What the…? What the hell was that for?!?" she said.

"Because you've been unconscious and we need you to get off your butt and get back to this thing." Brooklyn said.

"You're not getting back to anything!"

Drake spun around. A brilliant fiend was standing behind them. He was smiling evilly. "I'd hoped I'd get the chance to annihilate you."

Yugi smiled a little. "Really? And how do you plan on doing that?"

"By dueling you to death, dropout!"

Keith raised an eyebrow. "Does he have any idea who he is dealing with?"

"I doubt it." Flynn said.

"If you're so confident, then you will have no problem backing up your rhetoric against me, will you?" Yugi said, activating his old duel disk and brushing some dust off of it.

"None at all." The fiend activated his duel arm.

"Let's duel!"

Yugi: 4000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 4000**

"I'll go first!" Yugi said, and drew a card in his signature style. "I summon Beta, the Magnet Warrior (Earth/Rock, 1700/1600), in defense mode! Then, I will lay one card facedown. That will end my turn."

"Ha! Any fool knows to place something better than Beta on the first turn!" The fiend drew a card. "I summon Amazoness Paladin (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1700/300) in attack mode! And due to her own effect, she gains 100 attack points! (1800) Now, Paladin, attack!"

"I activate my trap, Negate Attack! Now you must end your turn."

"Very well, you'll not get away with this one."

Yugi drew again. "I activate Polymerization! I'll use it to fuse Gazelle, the King of Mythical Beasts with the mighty Berphomet! Now, come forth, Chimera, the Flying Mythical Beast! (Wind/Beast/Fusion/Effect, 2100/1000)"

"Oh, no, a large stupid beast."

"I switch Beta into attack mode! Now, Chimera, attack his Paladin!"

Yugi: 4000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 3700**

"Beta, attack him directly!"

Yugi: 4000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 2000**

"I'll set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Fine then!" The fiend drew a card. "I'll set one monster in defense mode, along with a facedown card! That's all."

"Fine then!" Yugi drew a card. As he swung his arm out in his draw motion, his eyes widened a little and the corners of his mouth twisted in a smile. "This is the end."

"How so? There's no way to penetrate my monster!"

"I activate Defusion! With it, I will separate Gazelle and Berphomet. Then, I sacrifice Gazelle, Berphomet, and Beta…"

"No way!" Flynn said, awed.

"He can't be…" Helen said.

"He's got to be!" Keith said.

"What's he doing?" Drake's dad asked. "I've seen you guys sacrifice one and two monsters at a time, but never three!"

"He's summoning one of the three Egyptian God cards…" Drake said, as awed as the others.

"I sacrifice all three to summon… THE WINGED DRAGON OF RA!!! (DIVINE/DIVINE BEAST/EFFECT???/???)"

"NO!!!" The fiend was panicking. "It can't be!"

"It is! And thanks to the sacrifices of my monsters, Ra gains attack points equal to their combined total! (4600)"

"It doesn't matter! You cannot penetrate my monster or my trap!"

"You clearly don't understand the power of Ra. By paying 1000 life points, I can destroy any monster on the field!"

Yugi: 3000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 2000**

"Winged Dragon of Ra, destroy his monster!" The huge dragon spit a large amount of fire from its mouth and burned away the fiend's card in a second. Drake could feel the power radiating from Ra.

"No! It can't be!"

"It is! And don't even think of using a trap! No trap can affect a god card! Go, Ra, destroy this fiend!"

Yugi: 3000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 0**

The fiend let out a horrible scream as Ra's flames burned him away. There was nothing left but a putrid black pile by the end of the attack. Drake was stunned at the huge display of power.

"That was awesome." Flynn said, almost in a whisper.

"Yeah." Keith said.

"Such power…" Helen said.

"The only time I've seen a duel end quicker was Matt and his one-turn Exodia win." Drake commented.

"Yes, he always had a knack for pulling Exodia on the first turn, regardless." Yugi said. "We should get going. There's little doubt that the fiends noticed that from a mile away. We're going to need a new plane so we can get to Duel Academy."

"Agreed." Flynn said. They began to hack their way through the dense underbrush, hoping that they would find some place with an airport.


	5. Change of Destination

Chapter 5- Change of Destination

They hacked through the dense underbrush for about 45 minutes.

"Hey, isn't that a town or something?" Drake asked, peering between some trees. Brooklyn came over and began to hack the trees away with an axe.

"That's not just a town, my friend." Brooklyn said. "That's Havana. Or, I should say, what's left of Havana." He was right. Most of the buildings had been torn apart, and several were still smoking.

"Wow, this is pretty bad." Flynn said, strolling down the street and gazing at the destroyed establishments. "There can't be a standing building in this city."

"Unlikely." Keith said, staring through a bombed-out general store. "How did they do this? What have they got that could blow something like this apart?"

"They may be using bombers." Brooklyn suggested. "Since we don't know who the leader is, it's impossible to tell if they have access to such technology or not. If they do, then we have many more problems to worry about."

"Hey, look, a TV." Drake said.

"What are you talking about?" Helen asked. "Why would there be a television in plain sight?"

"It's not. It's in that mostly destroyed shop window." Drake said, and pointed. Sure enough, a still-on TV was sitting in the window of an otherwise destroyed electronics shop.

"Why is that important?" Brooklyn said.

"Because it's the news." Keith said. "Don't you ever watch the news?"

"No."

"It probably contributes to your cluelessness."

"And why should I care about the news? It's boring."

"Because it could be useful." Without further ado, Keith walked quickly to the TV and squatted down so that he could see it. Drake and the others followed. The show had just restarted.

"And in recent news…" The newscaster said. "All news broadcasting stations have been forced to relocate to the last remaining free nation in the world, Switzerland. This is the result of the bizarre creature attacks. Also as a result of the creature attacks, the recent UN meeting has been postponed as Peacekeeping forces attempt to secure the convention area from attacks. Stand by for more details."

Keith looked at Brooklyn. "That's not good."

"Yeah. Those are world leaders in there. If the fiends get in, then all those guys are gone and we have much fun rebuilding the world."

"Agreed." Flynn said. "So, what, are we changing course for the UN?"

"Yeah, we kind of have to." Brooklyn said.

"Yes. Rescuing the leaders of our planet is a necessity over anything else." Yugi said. "It does not matter if we are successful or not, if there is no one to lead the world into the rebuilding after this tragedy, then it will be as bad as if we had failed."

"So, what, I've got to fly you to New York now?" Mr. Stizen said.

"Yeah, I guess you do, Dad." Drake said.

"Okay. That's not hard. At least, not now it isn't."

"We're going to need a new plane." Brooklyn said.

"That's not too hard." Keith said. "Do you think there's anyone else around here?"

"I would be astonished if there was, but hey, we found Drake's dad in Hawaii."

"True."

"Can't we stop talking and get moving?" Drake asked. With every passing second the fiends got closer to the sixth gate and therefore closer to destroying Julie permanently. He felt a renewed sense of urgency to get moving.

"Okay loverboy, let's get moving." Flynn said.

"Hey!"

"Oh, come on, do you think I don't see that in your reason?"

"Hmph…"

"In any case, Drake's right. We should get moving." Keith said. "The longer we wait, the more the fiends can mass outside the UN and wear down the soldiers there. It's not like the UN guys can call in cruise missiles or something. The fiends probably have control of those, now that I think about it. And that would probably mean they have nukes too… this could get ugly. Hey, that's a good idea."

"What is?" Helen asked.

"What if there are cruise missiles or something like that around here?" Keith's eyes lit up. "That would be fun."

"That's a great idea, Keith." Yugi said.

"You've got a point there, but how would we use them?" Mr. Stizen said. "I'm the only one here who can fly a plane-"

"I can." Brooklyn said.

"What?"

"Matt taught me how to fly a small, if very simplified fighter plane."

"What kind?"

"X-32 Nightmare."

"WHAT?!? Where'd you get one of those?"

"He got it from Matt Jurik."

"How?"

"He's a friend of his."

"Lucky. You probably have access to all sorts of technology."

"Yeah. We do. Top-of-the-line cars, airplanes, choppers, computer equipment, and, the best part…" Brooklyn grinned. "The latest video game system!" Everyone rolled their eyes. "What? It's nice stuff."

"Would you mind telling us what this X-32 thingy is?" Drake asked.

"It's the most advanced fighter produced thus far." Mr. Stizen said. "It's ridiculously simple to fly, even for amateurs, and yet it is of higher quality than any other fighter out there. It has devastating armaments and incredible mobility. But I doubt we'll find one here. Cuba is so far behind on technology due to Communism it's ridiculous."

"Yeah, they are." Keith said. "Come on, the airport's over there." They walked across the street and into the decrepit airport. Just like on Hawaii, most of the planes had been bent into weird knots or snapped in two. There was only one still in flying condition. Drake's jaw dropped.

"You've got to be kidding me." He said. Sitting in the middle of the runway was an old B-17 Flying Fortress.

"Well, at least there will be enough room!" Brooklyn said. "After all, it's a fortress."

"That wasn't funny Brooklyn." Helen said.

"So what? It's true."

"Well, it won't be particularly comfortable, but it'll do." Drake's dad said. He walked over to it. "Come on, get in!"

"Where from?" Drake asked. Drake's dad opened door on the side. "Isn't there usually a ramp or something?"

"Usually, but not for this one. Get in already. Someone needs to be in the rear ball turret, right mid ball turret, left mid ball turret, chin turret, pilot is me, copilot is Brooklyn, and someone needs to be in the bomb sight."

"Who's smallest?" Flynn said.

"That would be Helen." Keith said. Despite the fact that she was older than any of them, she was also smaller than all of them.

"Why?" Helen asked. A look of comprehension dawned. "I am not!"

"You have to. We aren't crawling all the way back there." Flynn said. "Get back there."

"No!"

"Okay, now I'm pulling rank." Flynn said. "Get back there or I'll shoot you."

"You wouldn't."

Flynn drew and shot in a lightning-fast motion. A little red slice appeared on Helen's shoulder. "I would. Get back there. This is a directive. Last time I checked, I had more authority in this group than you."

"You lousy little… where did you get the idea that you had more authority than me? I'm your elder and proffesor!"

"As we know it, Duel Academy is no more. Therefore, those ranks are insignificant and void." Keith said. "And in this group, last year, in Matt's absence, we appointed Flynn sergeant. Therefore, he's higher than all of us. He can pull rank on any of us."

"Yes. This is final. Get in the back." Flynn said. Helen glared at him but climbed in and started crawling to the back.

"That wasn't particularly kind." Yugi said.

"She had it coming." Flynn said. "Saying that stuff about Matt… she tried to kill him, you know."

"Even so, you should treat her with dignity and respect." Yugi said.

"Maybe… you're next. Get in the left turret. Keith, I want you in the right turret." Flynn said. Both entered the plane and slid toward their respective turret. "Drake, I want you in the chin turret. I'll take the bomb sight."

"Okay." Drake said. He climbed up into the ball turret. Flynn slid into the bomb sight just below him. Drake's dad and Brooklyn slid into the cockpit just above Drake.

"Alright." Drake's dad said. "You ready kid?"

"Sure. But don't call me kid. I'm over 20."

"Really…" Drake's dad didn't seem to believe Brooklyn. "Let's go!"


	6. Enter the UN

Chapter 6- Enter the UN

The flight was incredibly uncomfortable. Drake wasn't a big guy, but the ball turret was just tiny, not to mention that it was partially occupied by the machine gun. Flynn at least got to lie down, but Drake was all cramped up in the tiny sphere. Not to mention it was quite loud in there.

_I wonder how Helen's doing all the way in the back. It's probably really small back there._ Drake thought. _Oh well, she deserves it. Especially after trying to ignore Flynn._ Drake's thought s were interrupted by his dad.

"Okay, all, we're coming in on UN HQ in New York City. Strap in, lock and load, and prepare to perform a quick sweeping strike." He said.

"What are you talking about, cap'n?" Drake asked.

"I'm going to fly us in as low as I can, as slow as I can without stalling. You guys are gonna kill everything you can. It's much preferable to trying to fight it all out on foot. Flynn's going to be dropping bombs on them, and you, Keith, Yugi, and that annoying Helen are going to gun them down. Flynn, how many bombs do you have?"

"I've got four little orange lights."

"That's plenty. Just make sure you hit the target. I don't expect them to detonate, but hey, we can hope. At least crush some fiends for us."

"Can do."

"Okay, coming in on the UN headquarters!"

"I see that!" Drake said. "There's a huge sea of black stuff ahead!" Drake locked in his machine gun and began to fire as they passed over the crowd of fiends. Drake could hear bombs falling through the air and was surprised to hear them blowing up. He continued to fire randomly as they flew in and landed just off to the side of the HQ.

"Okay, everybody out!" Drake's dad shouted. Drake grabbed his rifle off the bottom of the ball turret and jumped out of the plane. He could hear Flynn behind him. Drake kicked the door open, jumped down from the doorway, and began firing at the still-large mass of fiends. Flynn was right behind him.

"This way!" Flynn said, running toward a thin spot in the fiends' line. Drake skidded to a stop and changed directions. Bullets sent pavement flying up into his face and he closed his eyes. He felt something like a knife cut his shin and he stumbled. Several bullets flew through the space where his head had been and one actually took some of his hair with it.

"Drake!" Yugi ran up next to him, grabbed him around the middle, and pulled him away as bullets kicked up dirt inches from where Drake's head had been.

"Thanks Yugi!" Drake said, getting to his feet.

"No time! Get moving again!"

"Duck and cover!" Flynn said. He held what looked like a can in his right hand. A metal loop dangled from his gritted teeth. He threw the canister into the crowd of fiends, then turned his back on the crowd.

"Wait, what are you-" BANG. White flooded Drake's vision and he could no longer hear. He realized what had happened. Flynn had thrown a flash-bang grenade, and Drake hadn't looked away in time. Now he was blinded and deafened, completely at the mercy of any fiend who had not been affected by the grenade. Something took Drake out at the middle and he felt himself being swept off of his feet and away to somewhere. His life was now in the hands of whoever was pulling him along at what felt like quite high speed.

He hit ground hard and he could tell it wasn't the grass that he had been running on moments before. He still couldn't see or hear but he felt cool air around him. He realized that he must be inside the UN building. Slowly his vision returned and he heard many voices speaking in many languages. Of course, since Drake didn't understand anything but English, he didn't know what they were saying. He heard a voice in English calling for silence.

"Hey! We shall have order in here. This is a diplomatic meeting."

"What are you talking about? There's nothing left to discuss!" came a heavily accented English voice. Drake couldn't guess at where it was from. "There are no more counteries left to discuss about!"

"We must keep our heads!" came another, less accented voice. "If we do not, these creatures will overrun us! We must take action!"

"It does not matter! We are trapped here, and these monsters are virtually limitless in number! Soon we will be starved out or die of fatigue!" Drake's vision was clearing up. They were in the huge chamber of the UN headquarters in New York, as Drake had suspected, and he was sitting off to the side. The others, obviously able to dodge the flashbang, were standing near him. Flynn's eyes were closed and his fingertips were pressed to the sides of his head. He looked very aggravated.

"WOULD ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!!!" He shouted, placing heavy emphasis on the last two words and somehow able to make himself heard despite having no means of amplification for his voice. All of the politicians stopped talking and stared at him. "God! I hate politics! I hate politicians! You're all a bunch of spineless cowards!"

The heavily accented ambassador stood and glared at him. "And who are you to call us spineless, little man? I do not see you doing anything about it." Flynn walked up to the politician. He was actually a few inches taller than the politician. For a minute they continued to glare at each other, then Flynn swung and knocked the politician over a desk. Several others shouted protest in their own language. Flynn turned to move back toward the others.

"I've been through this twice, stopped it once, and lost two people who were important to me. It's like hell, and you fools don't get it. Don't you dare call me spineless. I've been to the depths of that place, the place these monsters come from, and it's worse than any torture chamber on this planet down there. And I'm going to shout at you all and perhaps kill some of you if you don't get your heads on straight. If they aren't, I'll make him straight." Flynn raised his fist menacingly. Nobody said anything. Flynn shoved his fist into his pocket and walked back to the group.

"You've really got to cool it, Flynn." Keith said.

"He deserved that one." Flynn said, pulling his fist out of his pocket. It was quite red. "I can't believe there are idiots who don't think we should do anything."

"Yeah… but look at what they have to work with." Brooklyn said. All of the soldiers who were standing around the room were sweating and red. Their pockets were flat, as if they had no extra ammo to spare. "They must be out of weaponry."

"Probably." Yugi said. "But we aren't."

"You're right, but do you honestly think we pose a threat to that many fiends?" Helen asked.

"No."

"Then why…?"

"Because we have to!" Drake said. "Stop being self-centered and get with it, you idiot! We're the only ones who have the faintest what's going on, and we're going to do something about it!"

"How dare you call me an idiot…" She glared at him. "I shouldn't have been so easy on you. I should have had you in detention, doing something, if I knew you were going to treat my like this… I would have hit you sooner. But now there's no time. This will have to do…" She reached back to hit Drake, but as she swung forward, Yugi caught her around the arm.

"Excuse me, but we need him. You will not touch him for that reason." Yugi said. Helen pulled free.

"And you will not touch me." She said.

"Shut up, you idiots." Flynn said. "I need to hear this. And I'd rather not bust my knuckles on one of you."

"What are we to do about this problem?" said the Secretary-General.

"It's clear! We need to assemble some kind of elite force under UN supervision and send it into close combat with this 'fiend army.'" Said a German ambassador through a translator. "If we can destroy it, we can began to rebuild the world."

"It ez unthinkable!" said a French Ambassador. "There ez no way that we can stop deez monstrositousities! Why would we want to go up ageenst deez creatures? We should engage een diplomacy with dee leader!"

"Translation?" asked the weary secretary general.

"What are you talkeeng about? I am talkeeng en perfect Eenglish!"

"He said we should try to engage the leader of the fiends in diplomacy." Said a Frenchman with a less pronounced accent.

"That's unthinkable!" shouted the British ambassador. "We should not even think about gaining audience with their atrocious leader! For once, I agree with Schliefan- we need to resist!"

"There is no need to engage these monsters in battle! We will only be destroyed." Said the ambassador from Spain.

"Mr. Secretary General." Brooklyn said.

"What is it?" he said.

"I want the floor."

"You can have it. Protocol here is basically out the window. Do whatever you feel necessary to keep it, short of violence."

"Very well." Brooklyn stepped up behind the lectern at the head of the UN chamber and stood to his full (and still small) height. It looked clear that he wasn't much of public speaker, but he started anyway. "Citizens of the world, or what is left of it, we are at a critical point in the history of mankind. The world has been invaded by an otherworldly force, and rests on the brink of destruction. The long-established governments of the world have been usurped, and Switzerland is the only remaining place safe for human inhabitation, and I fear even that will be compromised soon.

"Fellow citizens of the world, we must take action. We must, because if we do not, our position and our very lives will be forfeit. We must, because many are in hiding and are dying because of these attacks. We must, in short, because the very lives of the people depend on it.

"There is one simple solution- enter the realm the fiends originate from, and stop the flow. Seal that realm for ours, and prevent, once and for all, another attack like this. It will not be easy. It is quite possibly a suicide mission. But it is necessary. Regardless of the sacrifice, some must be sent to die for the greater good of all.

"I do not say this because I have been conformably nestled behind some computer watching this from a distance. I have been there. I have entered the home of the fiends, known in legend as the Shadow Realm. I have fought them and defeated them once before. This time is different. We have already fought back the fiend attacks in some areas of the world, and we have suffered two causalities in the most brutal way imaginable.

"One of them was just a girl; a blossoming young woman with a promising future. In an instant, her soul was torn from its shell and she ceased to exist as we know it. Now it is being conveyed deeper into the Shadow Realm for an undoubtedly sinister purpose. She may still be saved, and yet it is quite possible that she will be lost forever to a fate worse than death.

"The other was my brother. His entire side was blown apart by a shotgun blast, and he died a slow painful death, losing almost two-thirds of all the blood in his body over about ten minutes. He died in considerable pain, having tried to stop it for the good of humanity.

"Both lost themselves like heroes. Both should be remembered as heroes. The first thing we can do in remembering them is to bring about what they died fighting for. We need to stop this flow of fiends. And we need to do it NOW." Brooklyn stepped down to a thick silence.

"Wow." Keith said. "That was some speech."

"Wait!" shouted a middle-eastern ambassador. "What are the names of these casualties?"

"Yes, we should like to know ze names of zees 'heroes,' as you filthy Americans are so fond of calling those who die for your foolishness." Said the French ambassador.

"The girl's name is Julie Daran. My brother's name is Matt None. He no longer uses his last name."

"Matt! I knew it! He's the brother of the outlaw who slaughtered all of those people!" shouted the Middle Eastern man. "Arrest him!"

"Outlaw? Who are you kidding?" said an official-looking, gray-haired man. He was in a crisp military uniform that clearly designated him as a general. He was staring quite severely at who was obviously the Egyptian Ambassador. "He was the best man I ever had. Never questioned, always loyal… to a point. He was the smartest man I've ever met. He may have had a sadistic streak, but he would never intentionally slaughter an entire village."

"Oh, yes, he just _happened_ to kill all of those citizens by accident in that short time period!" The Egyptian said hysterically. "No problem! Let's let him off now, because he _obviously _didn't do it on purpose!"

"That has no bearing on the topic at hand." Said the Secretary-General. "There is no reason to discuss that issue. He's dead. What we must decide now is whether or not to take action. That kid brought up some good points. Please input your position in the normal manner." There were many beeps and scraps as each ambassador pulled up a keypad and voted on a course of action.


	7. Setting Out Again?

Chapter 7- Setting Out Again?

Before the votes began pouring in, the French Ambassador stood up. "I move for a ten minuite recess." He said.

"I will second." Said the Middle Eastern man.

"Would any like a recess?" said the Secretary-General. There was a deafening "yea." "Very well, this meeting will resume in ten minutes." He stepped down and sat on the ground, looking exhausted. The grey-haired general stepped toward Drake and the others.

"I would like to speak with you." He said. Brooklyn nodded.

"Can't you do that here?" He asked.

"Yes, but I would prefer it somewhere else." The man said. "Follow me." He lead them up the stairs to their left, past all the long tables that stretched across the room, passed the bartering politicians, and into a room in the back of the main chamber. "This will do."

"Who are you?" Drake asked. "How do you know Matt?"

The man smiled. "I thought I was the one who wanted to ask the questions, but it seems you want some answers. My name is Dwight D. MacArthur, I'm the General of the UN peacekeeping force. As for my connection to Matt… well, I already explained that. I had him when I was only a lieutenant in the US army. Like I said, best man I ever had. Incredible combat medic. We all called him "invincible" because he could run clear across a battle field without getting shot, particularly when he was running to medic someone. We also called him that because no matter what, no one could kill him. He was shot several times, all over the place, got caught on barbed wire, once he stepped near a land mine and got blown back about fifty feet, but he never died. Never found out how he managed that…

"But enough reminiscing for me. Tell me, what exactly is going on? I gleaned a few things from this guy's speech, but I can't begin to guess at the whole story. Something tells me there's more to it than just a few monsters attacking the world."

"Well, you're right there." Keith said.

"It happened last year, too." Flynn said.

"Hmm? I don't remember anything about these things being in the news last year."

"That's because it was Duel Academy local." Brooklyn said. "They never got off the island. And, despite the report Matt sent in concerning it, nothing was ever published, nor was it ever investigated."

"I see." MacArthur said. "So, tell me. What happened last year?"

Keith began the story, as he had the best memory of any of them, but had to drop off at one point. He laughed a little and said, "That's right, I don't remember anymore from there. I was dead to the world from that point until you guys unlocked the vault."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, at that point I got caught and got my soul torn out." Keith winced, as if remembering the sensation. "That wasn't pleasant."

"I wouldn't doubt that." Drake said. "I wasn't there to watch, so I wouldn't know." Drake explained why he hadn't been there, along with the incident with Matt's "spirit."

"Now that's something I've never heard of him doing." MacArthur said.

"He didn't gain the ability to do that until after he killed all those people." Brooklyn said.

"Are you saying he actually did murder that entire town?"

"Yes, but he did it unintentionally. You remember the key we mentioned? Well, he touched it. We haven't explained the effects yet, have we?" Brooklyn looked at Keith. Keith shook his head. "Let's just say that it drives a normal man mad. And as invincible as he was, it affected him the same way it affects most men. Drove him to the edge of despair, and it was so bad he killed everything in sight. Next thing I know, I'm walking through a ghost town with blood and bodies and body parts everywhere and he's trying to make these two items out of the souls of the slain."

"That's… disturbing."

"Yeah, I thought so too. And I saw it all. But getting back to where we left off…" Brooklyn looked to Flynn. Flynn nodded and continued from where Keith had left off, up until when Brooklyn had joined them.

"You know, what made you come find us?" Flynn asked.

"Matt hadn't answered some of my calls, and I feared for his life, obviously. And I feared for yours, too."

"Ah." Flynn continued on and wrapped everything up.

"Well…" MacArthur looked pensive. "That's quite the tale, but I can tell you're telling the truth. What had happened on more recent terms?"

"Where should I start?" Keith asked.

"Is there really a question there?" Drake asked.

"I think there is." Keith frowned a little. "I don't like what I'm seeing."

"Tell us, O great and wise one, what do you see?" Helen said. Flynn slipped one hand over her mouth and one under her chin and held her mouth shut.

"I would like to move to ditch Helen here so we can spare ourselves this annoyance." Flynn said.

"Nah, we need her. We're short on manpower as it is, and as annoying as she has been lately, she contributes." Brooklyn said.

"Yes." Keith said. "Anyway, I've made some connections I don't like. I never thought about it before. You realize that the night the fiends attacked was the night that William was released from custody in the Flynn-William issue."

"So…?" Drake said. "Go on."

"Don't you think that's a little too coincidental? And only a few days before the attack, one of the key members of the original team that took down the fiends was put almost out of action."

"That's it?"

"No. It's not." Keith looked somewhat troubled. "For several weeks after the first attack, I noticed William was sneaking in and out of the Chancellor's room with a large bag that looked like it had books in it. You remember what Bentz told us about that."

"No." Flynn admitted. Helen opened her mouth and bit down on Flynn's hand. Flynn didn't move. "That's not nice." He curled up the hand under her jaw into a fist, lowered it a little, and gave Helen a good thwack on the bottom of her jaw. She shut her eyes from the pain. "So you think William may be connected to the attacks?"

"I don't think he's connected to them; I think he's heading them, much like Jacobs did last year."

"Any other proof of that?"

"Not off the top of my head." A buzzer went off in the room.

"Your presence is required in the main chamber." Came a voice through a grate on the wall.

"Thank you for answering my questions." MacArthur said.

"It wasn't a problem." Keith said. MacArthur nodded and left the room. The others stood there for a moment.

"Do you think they care for us to be in there?" Drake asked. The voice came back.

"Didn't I tell you to get into the main chamber?" it said.

"I guess that means yes." Flynn said while getting elbowed in the stomach by Helen. He apparently didn't feel it. "Now, can you hold your nasty tongue in check and be a good girl?" Helen glared at him as much as she could with him restraining her from behind. He let go, raised his foot, and kicked Helen in the small of the back. She fell forward and rolled up against the wall. "Let's go." Flynn said. They all followed him out.

"You run a brutal command, Flynn." Yugi commented.

"She needs to be put in her place." Flynn said.

"There are kinder ways to do it."

"Not in her case." Flynn stared out across the UN chamber. "What is it now?" He shouted down to the Secretary-General. The S-G sighed.

"The UN council has voted to commission your little group to find the source of this attack and end it." He said. "We will supply you with some munitions and supplies, but we are quite short-handed right now. You may take any personnel from here that you believe will be necessary to the success of your mission."

"Good." Flynn said. "I would like to take General MacArthur with me, if you don't mind."

"You have him. Anyone else?"

"No. I'm good." Flynn said.

"MacArthur?" Drake asked. "You sure about this?"

"He is a military man and has proven himself trustworthy, despite the short time we have known him." Yugi said. "I believe that he will make a fine addition to this squad." MacArthur stepped out from behind the US ambassador and joined them at the top of stairs.

"Do you need any supplies?" asked the S-G.

"Just the basics. Food and munitions."

"You will have them." The S-G directed them toward a side room, where a worker gave them a sack of nonperishables and some munitions.

"These won't rot, but it's not terribly varied. Hope this doesn't take you too long." Said the worker. "If it possible, I'd suggest that you go somewhere and get fresh foods instead of wasting that. Save it for when there's not other way to get food."

"Right." Flynn handed the bag to Helen, who glared at him but took it anyway. "Let's go." He led them to the exit. "We're going to have to fight back to the plane, so get ready." He locked in a new clip to his own rifle. MacArthur pulled out his own rifle, a monstrous rifle with all sorts of nasty gear on the sides.

"What the heck is that?" Drake asked.

"It's fairly new. Full auto, 60 rounds to a clip, 1000 rounds a minute. It also has a laser sight attached to the front that runs on stored solar power, a bipod, and an effective range of about a mile."

"That's ridiculous." Flynn said. "But we'll take it." He reached for the handle of the door. "Ready?" He threw the door open. "Go!" He clubbed a fiend who just happened to be too close to the door and shot through a few more fiends. Drake shot the fiend and ran after him.

Getting out was just as hard as getting out, but thanks to having a new man in the cell, they accomplished it without too much trouble. Drake's dad had the plane running as soon as he saw them coming. Drake realized something.

"Will we have enough room for MacArthur?" He shouted to Keith as he cut down a small group of fiends.

"Yeah! He can just strap in over the bomb bay." Keith said, flipping out a switchblade and stabbing a fiend in the neck, then cutting down some more by firing his rifle with his other hand.

"Where'd you get that?" Drake asked, backing up to the B-17.

"I've had it for a while. It's easier to carry discreetly than a pistol or rifle." Keith swung up into the plane. "Come on!" Drake swung up into the door and into his little ball turret, closing the door behind him.

"Everyone in?" Mr. Stizen shouted.

"Yeah!" MacArthur shouted. "Go, CCMS!" The plane roared down the street, slicing some fiends into pieces with its deadly propellers. They had no trouble getting into the air.

"Why does he call you that?" Drake asked, sticking his head out of the turret.

"That's my airforce rank. Command Chief Master Sergeant. That's General D. D. MacArthur back there, is it?" Drake's dad asked.

"Aye, it is." Flynn said. "Why?"

"I knew him back then. Had to drop into more than a few places. We knew each other pretty well."

"Small world…" Flynn said.


	8. Nice to Drop In

Chapter 8- Nice to Drop In

"How are we getting into Duel Academy?" Drake asked his dad.

"Well, I probably can't land, so you're going to have to jump." His dad responded.

"JUMP?!? Are you crazy?"

"No, I don't think so."

"It's alright, Drake." Yugi said. "There are parachutes."

"Still." MacArthur said. "This plane was not made to be jumped out of. The fact that it's an older plane makes it harder. Good thing is that we have used all of the bombs and thus the bomb bay is completely open. We will slid out through the bomb racks, then parachute into the waters near the academy."

"Why the waters?" Drake asked.

"So you don't break a leg." Flynn suggested.

"Well, basically, yes." MacArthur said. "I've done several paradrops, so it's not a problem for me, but with you guys I'm kind of afraid of what may happen. It's not exactly easy to do."

"I'm not doing it." Helen said. "Too risky."

"Oh, come on." Keith said.

"It's not like you have a choice." Drake's dad said.

"Why's that, old man?" she said.

"Firstly, don't call me old. I'm not even 40 yet." Drake's dad glared at Helen, and his eyes moved to Drake as if to say, _Why do you bother keeping her around?_ Then he went back to Helen. "Secondly, if you stay on the plane, the extra weight will cause a greater volume of fuel usage, and it's actually substantial enough to cause us to crash about a mile from the nearest airport. So you're going with, even if I have to push you out the door."

"Yeah right." Helen said, and turned away from him. Drake's dad kicked her in the back.

"I'm not kidding. I will push you out of this plane if you don't jump. From what I've seen, you've been quite the jerk to my son and his friends, and I will not tolerate that. And I sure as heck ain't dying because you're being a stubborn prick."

Helen snorted, as if she still didn't believe him, and went back to her turret at the very end of the plane. Drake's dad shook his head. "Why is she still around?"

"Because she's a decent duelist and we're short on manpower." Flynn said. "I'd like to cut her loose but we keep losing people."

"It would seem that she doesn't bring much." Mr. Stizen said.

"She does not. She causes more trouble than she's worth." Keith said.

------------------------------

Several hours later they were in Duel Academy airspace. The bomb bay door was open and Drake could barely hear over the whipping winds. He was wearing a heavy backpack that he knew had a parachute in it. Or, at least that's what he hoped.

"Everyone ready?!?" Flynn shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone except Helen nodded. Flynn shook his head at her. She didn't notice. Drake's dad was suddenly on a speaker.

"Okay, thirty seconds to jump…" he said. "Coming in on Duel Academy Island, twenty seconds. Coming in, releasing all extra bombs, ten seconds. Five seconds… jump!" Drake slid under the bomb rack and out the bottom of the plane and whacked his head on the metal walkway he had been standing on. For a moment he saw stars, then he realized that he was falling through the air upside down as his friends hovered above him with their parachutes open. Someone shouted down to him but he was still dazed and couldn't hear very well. And he was still falling at an alarming rate.

Drake tried to right himself, but he couldn't. He reached behind him to grab the rip cord for the parachute but it kept slipping through his fingers. Finally he got a hold of it and yanked, only to find that it was stuck. _Great!_ He thought vaguely. _Old parachutes! They don't all work!_ He kept yanking on the cord. _500 feet…_

Drake kept pulling on the stuck cord and tried to get himself so that he would at least land on his feet. _Then again, if I do land on my feet, chances are that I'll fold up like paper and die, flattened like a pancake…_ he shuddered at the thought. _400 feet…_

Drake yanked and yanked. The others were getting smaller and smaller as he fell. Drake wondered what would happen to them if he couldn't save himself. _Do your best, guys… 300 feet._

Drake rolled over in midair at last. He could see the ground coming up faster and faster. Drake yanked again. _This is hopeless…_ He thought. _Good bye, everyone… I guess I'll be joining Matt. Save Julie for me… then she can join me later…_ He curled up into a ball as he plummeted toward the earth. _200 feet…_

_You pansy…_ said a voice in his head. It sounded strangely familiar, and Drake had the weird thought that it was outside of his head. _Die trying, like a man._

"Who are you?" Drake said aloud.

_There is no time for questions. Save yourself!_

"But the parachute doesn't work!"

_It does! Pull three times!_

Drake grabbed the ripcord and gave it three good yanks. On the third yank the parachute ejected from the backpack and slowed his fall, momentarily yanking on his shoulders as his speed dropped drastically in a short time span. "Ow…" he said. "Where are you?" But no one answered him. He landed hard on the ground, not having had much time to slow his descent. He lay on the ground, breathing hard from the insane stress that had come from a near-death experience. A few minutes later the others descended off the coast near him. Flynn jumped up onto shore and ran over to him.

"Drake! Are you okay?" He shouted.

"Yeah." Drake said weakly. "Yeah, I'm good." He sat up. The others were hurrying out of the water and up onto shore, all except for Helen, who sat in the bay. Keith turned around.

"Is little Miss Party Pooper going to stay in the water?" He said.

"Shut up." She said, and leveled her rifle on him. His eyes widened as she pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She pulled it again, and still nothing happened. She hit the gun, checked to make sure nothing was blocking the barrel, unloaded the clip and stuck a new one in. She aimed at Keith and pulled the trigger again. Still nothing. "What the HELL is wrong with this thing?!?"

Brooklyn began to laugh. "The jerk gets her just deserts! She tries to kill someone, and her gun gets messed up! Hahahahahaha…" Helen scowled, tried to run at Keith, but seemed to hit an invisible…something in between them. It wrenched the gun from her hand and threw it to Brooklyn. He caught it, looking surprised. Helen stood up again.

"So, are you going to stop being violent…" Brooklyn held out the gun toward her. "…or not." He pulled it back and aimed his deadly laser at her. She reached out her hand and snatched the gun from his hand.

"I'll get you someday." She said.

"Yeah, once this ends. If we survive and it does end." MacArthur said.

"Let's stop wasting time." Keith said.

"Yes, there's a passage here that leads right to the main building." Yugi said, pushing aside a few trees branches and some shrubbery.

Brooklyn nodded. "Let's go." He turned away from Helen and began to walk up the path. Drake immediately followed, and the others were right behind them. As they walked up the steep incline toward the Academy, Drake felt a strange sort of presence. It was filled with authority and power, and Drake thought it was… familiar. He had felt it before, sometime long ago…

_But what is it?_ He thought. _I can't put my finger on it… when was the last time I felt it?_ He pondered this until they arrived.

"Wow. Nothing there." Flynn said.

"You know…" Drake said, an idea dawning on him. "If it's abandoned, we could probably raid the security bunker and the card shack."

"Not a bad idea, Drake." Keith said.

"You can't steal from the Academy!" Helen said.

"Ahem." MacArthur said. "If they don't steal from the Academy, I doubt that there will be an Academy to steal from when this is over." Helen muttered something but everyone ignored her. Brooklyn strolled up to the back door, melted through the handle, and kicked the door in.

"I've always wanted to do that." He said.

"Sure. You take MacArthur and Helen and go to the security center." Flynn said. "We'll raid the card shack for anything worthwhile."

"Okay." Brooklyn walked to the elevator and rung it. It was already there, waiting for him. He, MacArthur, and Helen all got in and left. Flynn led the way into the card shack.

"Sift through the piles." He said. "There has to be something in here that can help us." Drake sat down at a pile of packs and began to tear them open. Most of the cards were of no use to him at the moment, so he set them aside. Finally he came across a good one.

"Ooooo, this should do." He said, holding it up to the light to check that it was indeed what he thought it was. Keith, who had been walking past him, stopped in mid-step to look at it.

"Not too bad a find. I still haven't found anything good and I've been through several boxes." He said. "Yes, quite the find you've got there." Drake slid the card into his deck.

_The Silent Magicians… I never would have dreamed I would find them here._ He thought. _But hey… I'll take it._ He stood up and turned around. Flynn and Keith were waiting, apparently having found nothing. Drake decided to ask anyway.

"Find anything good?"

"Just a Tyrant Dragon." Flynn said, flashing a card.

"Helpoemer." Keith said. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah." Drake said. "Have the others gotten back down here yet?"

"Right here." Brooklyn said, stepping into the card shack. "There wasn't much left, but here's what we could find." He tossed Flynn, Keith and Drake a few clips. Drake slipped them into his empty pocket. "MacArthur's digging around for cards to build this old deck he once had."

"He duels?" Drake asked.

"So it seems."

MacArthur stepped in behind Brooklyn. Helen and Yugi were behind him. MacArthur had strapped a duel disk on and a deck was inserted into the slot. "Alright, I've got it together." He said. "I have to warn you, though, it's been several years since I last played this game."

"You'll get back with it quickly." Yugi assured him.

"I hope he does." Brooklyn said. "Otherwise this is gonna be a real short mission. Let's get out of here. There's a gate to the Shadow Realm straight out the front door."

"Only one problem with that." Keith said, leaning out the door. "There's an army of fiends out there. And an intelligent one is coming inside."

"Well, that is a problem."


	9. ReFamiliarization

Chapter 9- Re-Familiarization

Drake looked out toward the front doors. Sure enough, an intelligent fiend was making his way in. He was smiling rather nastily.

"You! Fool! Sticking your head out of the doorway! You are not alone, hm?" it said.

"And I should tell you this… why?" Drake asked.

"Because you have about eight snipers trained on your head and you will die if you do not comply!"

"Right." A bullet hit the wall above his head and sent plaster from the wall falling onto his head. "See? They missed." Drake pulled his head back as another bullet hit about an inch lower. "Oh dear. We seem to be pinned down."

"Yes, quite." Flynn said. "Hey! Stupid fiend!"

"I am not stupid! I'm smarter than you, apparently, since you are all holed up in an indefensible position, and I am the one who has pinned you in there!" The fiend responded.

"Well, you're the idiot who wants to duel."

"I do! And I'm not foolish for doing it, because I know you cannot beat me!"

"Do I have to prove a point?" Flynn turned to MacArthur. "Look's like you get to duel."

"What? This soon?" He asked.

"Yeah. The cocky fiends are always the worst at actual dueling. It shouldn't be too hard for you."

"I sure hope you're right, Flynn." Drake said.

"Get out here!" shouted the fiend. "I want to tear you apart."

"You know, we're not stupid enough to go out there when there are rifles trained on the doorway." Keith said. "You would just shoot us and be done with it. No, you've got to move so you can see us, not the other way around."

"HAHAHAHA!!! As if I'd listen to you." The fiend said.

"Well, you're going to have to, because we're not moving." Flynn said. "If you don't come to us, then we're at a stalemate."

"Ha! You forget that us fiends have control of all the weaponry in the world! If you try and hold out, we shall simply hit you with a missile and you will die! You fools! You cannot win this!"

"Only one problem with that." Keith said. "This complex is protected by a complex array of secure lasers, particles beams, and missiles that prevent any kind of aerial attack from ever succeeding. This place was built to guard secrets, and they made sure that no one would ever get in if they didn't want them in. The system cannot be deactivated by any means except for by a lengthy security code. The code is guarded by a code that is not in any database, but is only known to the chancellor of the school. And because you killed him, you don't have it.

"How do you find out all this stuff?" Helen asked. "Even I didn't know that!"

"It's quite secret." Keith said. "I just do my research." For some reason, Keith looked really nervous.

"Curses…" The fiend said. "Outsmarted by a kid…" He walked around the corner. "I'll take out the old guy." He pointed at MacArthur.

"I was going to force you to face me anyway." MacArthur said.

"You probably can't even string together two cards!" said the fiend. "You old hack!"

MacArthur: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"Let's find out." MacArthur said. He drew a card. "I'll dig in with this- The Creator Incarnate (Light/Warrior/Effect, 1600/1500) in defense mode! Then I'll place three facedown cards…I think I'll end there."

"Ha! Is that all? That's an obvious move." The fiend drew a card. "I summon Marauding Captain (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1200/400) in attack mode! And when he's summoned, I get to summon any other level 4 or lower monster! So I'll call out Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1400/1200) in attack mode as well! Then, I'll give the Guardian a new blade- Divine Sword Phoenix Blade that is! It gives him three hundred extra attack points. (1700) Now, Guardian, attack the Creator Incarnate!"

"Since you just destroyed him, I'll activate my trap card, Hero Signal!" MacArthur said. "Because you just destroyed a monster as a result of battle, I can special summon an E-hero from my deck. I'll bring out E-Hero Sparkman (Light/Warrior, 1600/1400) to replace the Creator on the front lines. And before this conflict resolves, I'll activate battle plans B and C: Poison of the Old Man and Emergency Provisions! First, the poison gives me an extra 1200 life points, and then, I'll send the defunct Hero Signal and Poison to my graveyard to gain 2000 more points."

MacArthur: 7200 

**Fiend: 4000**

"Not too bad for someone who hasn't dueled in years." Yugi said. "He still remembers how to effectively use Emergency Provisions. Granted, that's an expensive combo, card control wise, but it gives him a substantial boost in life points."

"Because I cannot destroy your new monster, I'll end my turn." The fiend said.

"Good. Now I can begin my raid on your army." MacArthur drew a card. "I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1800/1600) in attack mode, and equip the spell card Nitro Unit to your Guardian. Now, when he's destroyed in combat, your life drops by his strength. Gearfried, engage the Guardian!"

"You can't, you old fool!" the fiend said. "My Marauding Captain prevents you from ever attacking another warrior as long as he is around!"

"Well, excuse this old warrior, I'll just take out your front line fortifications then!" MacArthur said. "Sparkman, defeat the Captain!"

MacArthur: 7200 

**Fiend: 3600**

"And now, Gearfried, enter combat with the Guardian!"

MacArthur: 7200 

**Fiend: 3500**

"And now the Nitro Unit will cause extra damage."

MacArthur: 7200 

**Fiend: 1800**

"He's not doing too badly." Drake said. "Apart from missing on the Captain's second effect, he hasn't missed beat."

"Apart from draining his hand of cards." Keith said.

"Yeah, that could be bad." Flynn said. "The fiend still has a lot of cards left; if he does something, MacArthur won't have much to counter it with."

"With that, I'll end." MacArthur said.

"Fine then." The fiend said. He looked quite angry that the old coot was beating him. "I'll set two cards facedown, then summon Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight! (Dark/Warrior/Effect, 2300/2100)"

"Isn't he level 7? Don't you need to sacrifice for him?" MacArthur asked.

"Normally that is true. But since he is the only card in my hand, I can normal summon him as if he was level 4! Now, Swift Gaia, take a chunk out of his life points and destroy his Sparkman!"

MacArthur: 6500 

**Fiend: 1800**

MacArthur frowned. "That hurt."

"It's supposed to!" The fiend said. "I'll end my turn."

"Hmm…" MacArthur drew a card. "I'll put my Iron Knight into defense mode, summon E-Hero Clayman (Earth/Warrior, 800/2000) in defense mode. That's all."

"Ha! Weak." The fiend drew a card. "I summon Command Knight (Fire/Warrior/Effect, 1200/1900) in attack mode! While there is another warrior on the field, it cannot be attacked! It also grants all other warriors 400 extra attack points! (1600) (2700) Now, I activate my facedown card, Fairy of the Spring! This returns an equip card to my hand, but I cannot use it this turn. Divine Sword is back! Now, Swift Gaia, destroy his Clayman!"

"Urg… this is strangely painful." MacArthur muttered.

"Oh, yes, we didn't explain Shadow Games to him, did we?" Flynn said.

"Nope." Drake said.

"He'll be okay. He's earned his share of Purple Hearts." Keith said.

"I'm amazed that you can remember all this stuff." Flynn said.

"My turn." MacArthur said. "Still nothing… I'll set a card and end my turn."

"Ha! You haven't got anything on me." The fiend drew a card. "I activate Wicked Breaking Flamberge- Baou by discarding the Divine Sword! This gives Swift Gaia effect negation powers and also gives him 500 more attack points! (3200) But I'm almost afraid of your trap card. An amateur like you couldn't bluff something that obvious. I'll end."

"Phew." MacArthur said, and drew. "I didn't know if you would go for that or not. But you should learn to read your opponent better… in battle, if you fail to do that, you lose. And you just lost. I'm great at bluffing, I play poker all the time with my army friends and I've never lost to any of them. Most attribute it to good luck, but it takes more than luck to bluff someone with four aces out of a pot when you have three-high."

"Wow." Yugi said. "That's quite a bluff."

"Got that right." Brooklyn said. "That's why I hated playing Matt in poker, I could never bluff him…" Everyone laughed except the fiend.

"So what are you going to do, you old buzzard? Are you going to destroy me?" the fiend said.

"Yes, I am." MacArthur said. "I activate Release Restraint! I sacrifice the Iron Knight to summon Gearfried the Swordmaster (Light/Warrior/Effect, 2600/2200) in attack mode! His effect is about to kill you. While the Iron Knight cannot be equipped, The Swordmaster loves equipment. In fact, he loves it so much that he gets a kill for every piece I give him. And I have two- the facedown card, and the last hand card."

"No!"

"I equip Gearfried the Swordmaster with Sword of Deep-Seated! This gives him 500 extra attack points, and now his effect destroys your Swift Knight! (3100) Then, I'll give him the Lightning Blade, which gives him 800 more points and lets him destroy the Command Knight! (3900)"

"It can't be! I can't lose to him…"

"Gearfried the Swordmaster, direct assault on the enemy!"

MacArthur: 6500 

**Fiend: 0**

The fiend gave one last cry of disbelief and blew up. "Phew." MacArthur fell down onto his rear. "That was not as much fun as I remember it being."

"Maybe because we're dueling with the fate of the world at stake." Brooklyn said.

"Yeah, that's probably it." MacArthur looked at Keith. "You were bluffing about those lasers and stuff, right?"

"Yeah." Keith said. "How'd you guess?"

"First off, we came in on a plane without contacting anyone. Second, where would they put it all?"

Keith smiled a nervous smile. "Yeah. But I figured that he wouldn't see through it."

"And you were right. He fell for that hook, line and sinker."

"Let's stop the small talk." Flynn said. "If you haven't noticed, we're still stuck here with an entire fiend army staring us down."

"I was afraid you were going to bring us back to reality like that." Drake said.


	10. Back to the Shadow Realm

Chapter 10- Back to the Shadow Realm

"Okay, now that the leader is gone…" Flynn said. "…we need to get the hell out of here. Sooner or later they're going to find out what happened, and when they do, I don't want to be unprepared when they come storming in here."

"Yeah, an army that size attacking us would probably be a bad thing." Keith said. "They don't seem to be doing much right now. They're just milling around out there… wonder what they would do if we tried to get out of here."

"They'd probably come after us." Brooklyn said. "They haven't figured out what happened here yet, but they will soon. They aren't completely stupid."

"Yeah." Drake checked his rifle. "So what's the plan?"

"Let's see…" Keith said. "What to do, what to do…there's a massive fiend army milling around outside, we're in here with very limited munitions and almost no weapon variety…then again… the fiends really aren't paying attention."

"Are you suggesting a direct frontal attack?" Yugi asked.

"Sure, why not?"

"We might as well try." Flynn said. "We know that they have snipers tactically positioned around the area. If we attempt to sneak out and around the back, chances are that those snipers will attempt to find us and shoot us. And chances are they'll suggest. There's very little ground cover outside."

"Only problem with Duel Academy." Keith said. "It's so new, they haven't even started doing the landscaping!"

"It also doesn't help the no work for any school gets done fast." Brooklyn said. "But back on topic. What are we going to do?"

"I thought we already decided that." Drake said. He was getting kind of impatient. While they were wasting time thinking on this, Julie was getting closer and closer to eternal damnation.

"Slow down there, loverboy, we haven't come to any decisions yet." Flynn said. "So is that all we've got? Go head on and hope for the best?"

"Yes, I suppose it is." Keith said. "I can't think of anything else."

"This isn't going to end well, you know." MacArthur said.

"I can tell. But is there a better way? You're the military man around here."

MacArthur scratched the gray hairs on his chin. "No. This is one of the worst situations possible. We have almost no manpower, whereas our opponent has virtually limitless numbers."

"Correction: truly limitless. Fiends don't die; they just kinda respawn at the core of the level they originate from." Brooklyn said.

"Okay, that makes things even worse. Granted, all of those numbers are not standing out there, but there seems to be enough to kill us all without much trouble. Also, they apparently have several sniper nests set up somewhere around here, which is another problem. We do not have a particularly tactical position, nor do we have much capacity for any kinds of tactics.

"Which leads to another problem- we have no weapon variety. We have sev- excuse me, five people equipped with assault weapons and another with a freakishly large laser rifle that looks like he got it from Star Trek. If one of us had, say, a grenade launcher or an RPG, this could be easier."

"He's right, of course." Brooklyn said. "It's not like we can just have Matt appear out of nowhere and kill everything with all his coolness and deadliness and stuff. It just doesn't work like that."

Something hit Drake. He couldn't describe it. Suddenly, somehow, the way wasn't hard anymore. In fact, the way seemed so simple that there was no way they could not make this run. "I have an idea." He said.

"What is it?" Flynn said. "At this point, I'll hear anything."

"We can go through the basement." Drake surprised himself. He didn't know that the academy had a basement.

"There is no basement." Keith said flatly. "I checked the schematics of this place when I came here. Nothing mentioned a basement. What makes you suggest such a thing?"

"It's not a basement, per se, it's more of a… bomb shelter." Drake didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Something was putting the words in his mouth, but he wasn't about to argue with it. This all made sense. "There's an exit tunnel. We can sneak around to the back of the army and then slip into the Shadows undetected."

"That's good in theory, but where is this bomb shelter?" Helen asked. "I've been all around this school, and I've never seen nor heard of it. What's gotten into you? You're probably going mad."

"It's… here…" Drake reached down, slipped his hand into an invisible crease in the carpet, and pulled it up. The brown floor underneath was incredibly dusty, and it had a silver handle sticking out of it. Drake seized this and pulled. The smell of a decades of abandonment came blowing out the tunnel. But there it was. Everyone was speechless.

"How did you know?" Keith asked. "That's not possible…"

"I… don't know how." Drake admitted. "It's… ridiculous." He stared down the pitch-black tunnel. "But how will we see down there?"

Yugi slipped a lighter out of his pocket. "It's not much, but this will do." He flipped it open and lit it, then proceeded down into the tunnel. Drake was right behind him.

For almost ten minutes, Drake followed Yugi's bobbing light in front of him, down the twisting corridor and around bends, around foundation spikes that seemed to be part of something built years after the tunnel, and under support beams that looked like they were pretty worn away.

"This has to be from sometime during World War II…" Keith said from somewhere behind Drake. His voice echoed down the tunnel. "…but why?"

"Good question." Helen said. "I never knew this was here… I doubt anyone did. We knew this was used before we built the academy, but we never knew what for. We bought the island from the government."

"It was probably a military base." Brooklyn said. "This place would make a pretty good naval base. It has a natural harbor, and the water around it is shallow enough that a submersed attack has no effect. It's not easy to get here from anywhere; the only place that's close is Hawaii, and it's America owned. The only way to get here is to go from there. And a naval attack is hard too, because chances are the ships will run aground. The original builders dug a canal so that single ships could get in, but multiple ships will get caught up in the reefs and sandbanks. So it's too hard to do a naval attack."

"Yes, this island would be a perfect naval stronghold." MacArthur said. "Except for the fact that you can just parachute onto it."

"Well, if there are actually military people here, they would have AA guns set up and other stuff." Keith said. "They probably had their own air force and everything. So that was really not a threat. Besides, I doubt that they could send planes this far."

"True."

"Shh…" Yugi said. "I can see the end of the tunnel." Everyone fell silent. Yugi crawled a little farther forward and then vanished. Light streamed into the tunnel. Drake crawled out and straightened up. Yugi was standing a few feet away, looking up. "That worked quite well." He was looking at the back of the gate, which was a few feet higher than them. Keith slid out of the tunnel next.

"Ow…" He groaned as he straightened up. "I'm glad I never worked in a submarine or something like that. I'll never stand up perfectly straight again." Flynn was right behind him with similar complaints. MacArthur army crawled out behind them, apparently less stiff than any of them as he had been laying down the whole way. Helen and Brooklyn followed him, apparently none the worse for the wear due to being shorter than the rest of them.

"Okay, so now what?" Keith asked, surveying the situation. "The gate still up there, and we're down here. How are we to get to it? This was your idea, Drake."

"I don't know." Drake pressed the heels of his hands to his forehead. He usually didn't think this much. "I can't think of anything."

"At least we're outside." Helen said. "There's something to be said for that."

"Actually, that's probably a bad thing." MacArthur said. "We're exposed. If there are any snipers scanning the area, we have no chance of avoiding a shot."

"Only one thing." Flynn said. "They won't be. They still think we're in there, if only for the moment. But I do agree with Keith. There is still no clear way to get to the gate." For a moment no one said anything.

"We have to go up the hillside." Helen suddenly said.

"What?" Brooklyn said. "That's stupid. Even I know that. We'll be advancing on an enemy that has higher ground, more men, better weapons, everything. And we'll be doing it in plain sight."

"Trust me." Something about Helen's eyes was strangely blank. It was as if her iris had enlarged inward to cover her pupil. Either that or the pupil had shrunk to invisibility. "We have to do this. Something just tells me this is the best way."

"You're mad." Keith said. "That's suicide."

"But it's also completely unexpected." Yugi said quietly. "They think we're still in the building. They think we'll try something tactical. What if we go with this? It's insanity, to be sure, but some of the best offenses ever have been insanely impossible."

"That only happens in bad movies and fantasy stories." Keith said. "This is reality!"

Drake didn't know what to think. He didn't trust Helen. He didn't like her that much after the way she had treated Matt and then Ashley and then the rest of them. But somehow, someway, she had mysteriously changed. She wasn't acting as hostile anymore. And that strange look in her eyes. Drake could only remember one thing with which that had had ever been associated- being possessed. That was what disturbed him most. If she was being possessed, then they had huge problems. For all they knew, she was actually captured by a shadow during the long journey and it had assumed her form. His head told him that wasn't likely, but that he shouldn't trust her anyway. But there was this other voice.

_Go with it._ The voice said. _She's trustworthy now. Go for it._

_Who are you?_ Drake asked. He recognized the voice as the one that had goaded him while he was falling. _What do you want? How do I know I can trust you?_

The question is not so much as who am I as who was I… 

_You're not alive?!?_

_No. I am quite dead. But I am here to help you._

_Who were you?_

_You cannot know. You will not know if I told you._

_What are you talking about?!? That makes no sense!_

_Later… go with it. Even if they do not, follow Helen. Goodbye._

_Wait! _But Drake felt the presence leave, and he was back with the others. They were all thinking hard. "Look." Drake said. "The longer we sit here musing about this, the greater the chance that the fiends will sniff us out. I have no doubt that the shadow hounds have great noses. We need to move now or die."

"He's got a point." Keith said. "But we have no plan!"

"We have Helen's."

"We already agreed that was no good!"

"Well, I'm not staying here any longer. I'm going up that hill and into the shadow realm, and I'll be damned if I don't save Julie even if I have to do it by myself."

"You've totally lost it." Flynn said. "Do you actually think you can take out the entire fiend army?"

"No, but I'll do what I can. At least I will die knowing I tried, rather than knowing I died while discussing a plan of action instead of executing one." Drake tried to walk past MacArthur to the side of the hill, but MacArthur stopped him. "Get off me! You can't stop me from doing this."

"I can. You are insane if you think you can do this." The general said.

"Well, then call me insane, but it hurts me more to just stand here than death ever will." Drake tried to break MacArthur's grips, but the old man was still strong. "Let go!" For some reason MacArthur did. He himself looked surprised at this. "Come on, Helen. If these guys aren't going to come…"

"Yeah. They can stay here and die." She moved toward Drake.

_This is odd._ Drake thought. _Only a little while ago she was resistant to anything we tried to get her to do. Now, I say one completely mad thing, and here we are, cooperating. This is quite strange._ Drake pulled out his rifle and made sure the clip was full. He doubted he would last long enough to empty it, but there was always a chance. He turned to look at the others, as if giving them one last chance.

"You're really going to do something this stupid?" Keith said.

"Yes. And you can't stop me."

"Fine then. I'll come with you." Keith said.

"What?"

"I'm going to defy all rational thought and do this. If we're going to die, we may as well fight it out. So here we go."

"Fine, fine." Brooklyn said. He moved over to them, quietly followed by Yugi. MacArthur and Flynn shook their heads and joined them.

"This is insanity." Flynn said.

"This is madness." MacArthur said.

"This is madness? This is madness?" Drake said, and he turned toward the hill. "THIS - IS – **SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**!!!" And with that, he charged up the hill, firing wildly at the fiend clump. It was impossible to miss. Ten of the fiends went down, leaving a small crease for Drake to enter into. He dropped the old clip and locked in a new one. Immediately fiends swarmed at him. None of them had a gun. But they did have spears. Drake shot several more. He had lost the others.

One of the fiends jabbed at him but missed. Drake swung the butt of his rifle into the fiend's jaw, snapping its neck. Anther fiend came closer, but Brooklyn shot it in the head from a distance.

"You owe me one for that!!!" He shouted. Drake swung his rifle in a wide arc, knocking a few more fiends over but doing little overall. There was a sudden explosion to his left. A few dozen fiends had gone flying. Keith had evidently remembered that he had found a rocket launcher in Cuba, and now he planned on using it. The first rocket had punched a huge hole in the fiend army, and Keith was sliding another one into the tube.

Drake returned to his business- cutting a hole into the fiend army straight to the gate. Another fiend came at him, and this time its jab was on target. The head of the spear hit Drake just below his ribcage, tearing through the flesh on his left side and probably cutting through his liver and kidney. Drake cried out in pain but managed to bring his rifle around, press it up against the fiend's skull, and pull the trigger. The fiend's head exploded and it fell away. But by now Drake was losing blood at an alarming rate. The fiends around him left him, apparently certain he was going to die.

Drake ripped the spear from his side and fell onto his back. Blood was leaking from his side. He tried to stop the flow with his hand but the wound was too wide. He felt faint; he could barely retain consciousness. He could hear shouts and screams (mostly fiends, at least he hoped) but he wasn't a part of it. He was dying. No one could save him.

_Guess this is it._ He thought. _I'm sorry Julie, I failed you…_ The pain was enormous. Drake closed his eyes.

--------------------------------

"Is he alive?" Drake heard.

"I think so." Said another voice.

"How's Helen?"

"Still out. She's in better condition than he is. But she'll never see out of that eye."

"Yeah. Keith? How are you?"

"Still some pain. But it's okay. I'll live."

"Good. It didn't look too bad." The voice paused. "We were lucky. There's no way we should have gotten out of that this easily."

"I'm surprised we got out of it _at all._" Said another voice. "But we all were injured. Besides Yugi… where did he go?"

"He's watching our front. Granted, he has no weapon, but after he made it through that unscathed… I don't know how he did it. It's remarkable."

"Quite."

Drake opened his eyes. Everything was swimming. The colors above him were a blur. But somehow he was alive. He could still feel pain in his side and he moved his hand there. Someone had wrapped a long, formerly white bandage around the wound. The bandage had been heavily stained. But the blood flow seemed to have stopped. Drake tried to sit up but couldn't. Keith was sitting next to him, his entire leg wrapped in white strips of cloth.

"So you decided to stay with us." He said, grinning painfully. "That's good."

"Yeah." Flynn said. There was a red line on his cheek, and it seemed to be dripping blood slowly. "For a moment I thought you were dead. You were just laying there in a small pool of blood, quite still. But we managed to get in here."

"What happened to Helen? I heard her name…"

Flynn looked sad, which, Drake thought, he had never seen before. "I'm sorry for her. I hate her, but I'm sorry for her. She caught a spear in her left eye. She'll never see out of it again, and she's in a lot of pain right now." Flynn paused, and Drake thought he heard Helen whimpering a short distance away. "It's too bad. You and her were the only ones who thought this would work, and you ended up getting hurt the worst. But it worked. I can't believe it, but it worked."

"What happened to the others?" Drake asked.

"Keith's leg get shredded by some guy with a SAW, but it's not too bad. MacArthur took a couple pokes in the arm, but he avoided the brunt of the blows. Yugi's unharmed, and Brooklyn is just a little scraped up. I just got this…" He gestured at the gash on his cheek. "…that's the extent of it."

"Okay." Drake tried to sit up but Flynn pushed him back down.

"You shouldn't try to move for a while. I'm not doctor, not like Matt or Julie, but I know enough to know that moving will open the wound up again. Just relax. We'll get moving in time. As soon as we entered the gate, the fiends ignored us. Apparently they don't think we can do much down here."

"Well, they're wrong there." Yugi said. "We just need to get deeper in, and we can do a whole lot of things to their operation."

"When are we going to start?" Drake asked.

"As soon as you and Helen are healthy." MacArthur said. "Or at least ready to go."

"Can someone move me so I can talk to Helen?" Drake asked. MacArthur bent over and lifted Drake off the ground. He swung around and set Drake down next to Helen. She had one hand pressed to her left eye, which was already covered in white bandages, and tears were streaming out of her other eye. She was whimpering in pain. Drake couldn't help but feel pity for her.

"How do you feel?" He asked. She turned to look at him with her good eye and removed her hand from her other eye. The bandage was stained heavily with blood.

"What do you think?" she asked. "I've lost an eye. And it hurts a lot… I've never been in this much pain. And I feel terrible…"

"Why?" Drake asked.

"There's this voice in my head… it keeps berating me… it was nice once when it told me how to get in here. But it just keeps telling me how nasty I've been… I see it now. I've been terrible to you guys, and for no reason. I'm sorry…"

"It's… okay." Drake said. He placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's alright…" And without warning, she buried her face in his shoulder and began to cry. Drake could feel the wet tears and the warm blood from her destroyed eye sliding down his shoulder. He didn't know what to do. So he just patted her on the shoulder. After a while she stopped, rolled over, and stared at the wall opposite Drake.

"How long has it been since we got in here?" Drake asked.

"About an hour." Flynn said. "You'll have to be ready. We need to move."

Drake suddenly felt a hundred times stronger. He jumped up. "Let's go."


	11. on to level 2?

Chapter 11- On to Level 2

"What a minute, I have no idea where we're going." Drake said. He turned and offered Helen his hand. She grabbed it gratefully and he pulled her to her feet. "Isn't this why we brought Yugi along? Because he knows this place well?"

"Yeah, it is." Brooklyn said. "So where to?"

"I've gone out a little farther. There's nothing anywhere near us. Now, do you want to take the short, disturbing way, or the long, quaint path?"

"Uh…what do you mean by disturbing?" Helen asked.

"I mean the torture chambers are that way. You've seen them, haven't you?" Yugi asked.

"No."

"She wasn't with us for all of our other little adventures." Flynn said.

"I see." Yugi frowned. "I'm not going to explain it to you. You don't want to know what's down that path. The others have been down there once or twice, and I think they would be considered what you Americans call, 'scarred for life.'"

"Yeah, I would say that." Drake said, shuddering. He didn't want to think about the images he had seen in those blood-filled hallways. The year before he had almost cracked because of what he had seen in there. If it weren't for Matt… he would probably have died because of the horror he felt. "I don't think we want to go there."

"Yes, I agree." Flynn said, a smile tugging at the left corner of his mouth. "Loverboy and Helen wouldn't want to see all of the horrible nasties in there, now would they?" Helen walked over to him and smacked him upside the head.

"Hey, be nice." Keith said.

"That was mean." Helen pointed out.

"She's got a point." MacArthur said, cleaning some stuff out of the chamber of his gun. He snapped the bolt back into place and the chamber slid shut. "Flynn, you haven't been really nice to her lately. And it's not like its warranted anymore."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Flynn said.

"So we're going to take the long way?" Keith said. "Won't there be more fiends there, as it's longer?"

"Usually that would be true." Yugi said. "But with the fiends stretched across the world, the mastermind will have to focus his monsters into one area. I would guess that he will focus all of his monsters onto the main path, and, with the relative omniscience he has within the shadow realm due to his control of it, he can easily send the fiends to any part of the realm from the main path with relative ease. However, because he cannot give the order as soon as he knows, we have some time to get moving until they find us."

"Alright then. No more complaints here." Keith said.

"I don't like taking too long." Flynn said. "What if the group that has Julie's soul is already here? We need to make up the time they've had to get ahead of us."

"Fiends don't move quickly." Brooklyn said. "They can only sustain travel for a few hours, particularly in daylight, and they had a major setback when the gate in Rome malfunctioned. Chances are they're way behind us."

"Okay. That puts me at ease." Flynn said. "I'd rather the fiends not unleash the power to destroy the world while we're taking the long way."

"Don't worry, that won't happen." Brooklyn said. He slung his laser over his shoulder and turned. "But let's not waste time. Let's go." Everyone dropped in behind him and they started walking down a path. Brooklyn stopped. "I just realized that I have no idea where I'm going."

"Then let me lead." Yugi said, pushing past Flynn to the front of the column. He moved to a wall and pushed open a door in the wall. "Here's what we're looking for." He held the door open and let everyone else through before following them in and shutting the door behind him. For a moment it was dark, but then torches along the wall lit up with purple flames, illuminating the passage. "Welcome to the long way through the Shadow Realm."

"It looks lengthy." Drake said, staring down the hall.

"Hence why it is called 'the long way.'" Flynn said.

"Oh, yes." Drake said. "You have a point." He shifted the rifle on his shoulder and winced at the pain in the region of his wound. Yugi nodded silently and continued on down the hall. Everyone followed.

They found groups of two or three fiends scattered randomly throughout the passageway, but none of them could do anything before Flynn or MacArthur at the front of the column. It still took them over half an hour to reach the gate to the second level.

"So… now we have another decision." Brooklyn said.

"What do you mean?" Helen asked.

"We need to decide if we want to wait here and hope that the army with Julie's soul is not here yet, and then hope they run into us." Keith said. "Or we can try to pry the gate open and go deeper if we fear that they have passed us."

"Which is safer?"

"Neither. We could be attacked at any time staying here, and as long as we don't move the mastermind can attack whenever he wants. However, if we stay here we can dig in and try to make some kind of defensive structure that would block the fiend army's path. If we choose to move deeper in then we can avoid any of his attacks because he won't be able to move the fiends in here fast enough, however, we run the risk of running into an army or into some other unknown trap."

"Okay, so what do we do?" Drake asked.

"YOU are not doing anything!"

Drake turned around and saw a figure wearing a black cloak standing on a ledge about twenty meters away. His eyes were covered by a hood, but his mouth was twisted in a smile. The voice was familiar, but sounded somewhat more twisted and evil than the voice of which it reminded Drake.

"So you're the mastermind, huh?" Flynn said. "You're smaller than I expected."

"Shut up! I have more power than you have ever had, or ever will have, since I'm going to kill you all!" said the mastermind.

"I doubt you have much power." MacArthur said. "As we keep destroying everything you send at us."

"You just get lucky, that's all." The mastermind said. "This time, there is no way out. The gate behind you is locked, so you can't escape through it. In a few seconds, one of my largest fiend armies to date will come in here and kill you." There was a sudden sound, like rumbling thunder. The floor of the Shadow Realm began to shake as a massive army of fiends of all types filtered into the room and filled the vacant space, leaving a three-meter no man's land between them and Drake's group. The mastermind smiled smugly.

"Kill them." He said, and vanished. The fiends on the front of the army smiled and began to slowly march toward them. Drake raised his rifle and began to fire shots into the crowd of dogs, shadows, fiends, and fat fiends. Some of them fell, but the horde kept marching forward. Everyone else was shooting everything they could, but the mob of evil beasts continued forward. They were now just two meters away.

Drake's rifle jammed. He cursed and hit the stock, checked the chamber, and tried to fire it. Still nothing. And now the fiends had drawn to within a meter of them. They were reaching out to tear him apart.

And then they suddenly stopped, as if frozen in time. The whole army did. For nearly ten seconds everything appeared to have frozen. Then, all of a sudden, blood spurted from invisible cuts all over the fiends. Most of them died instantly as body parts fell to the ground. Some of them slowly collapsed, spewing blood all over the room. In seconds the entire army was dead. The mastermind was not among them.

"What just happened?" MacArthur asked.

"I have no idea." Flynn said.

Keith moved closer to a dismembered fiend. "These cuts are outrageously fine… as if someone cut them with a string. They were administered at such a speed that it took almost ten seconds for the cut to register. But that's impossible…"

"Apparently not, as it just did." Drake said.

"This is a bizarre phenomenon…" Yugi said. "What is that fast?"

"Nothing I'm aware of." Brooklyn said.

"At least we're not dead." Helen pointed out.

"That is true."


	12. Into the Darkness

Chapter 12- Into the Darkness

"Okay, we're still alive, but we still haven't decided what to do next." Flynn said.

"We should get moving." Keith said. "I would interpret that attack as the mastermind not wanting us from getting any farther in. It could be an attempt to soften us up for the main group, and if it is, we're not ready here. They can't move as fast as us, so I say we should move forward."

"Only problem with that, Keith." Said Yugi, placing his hand on the gate. "The gates is still locked, and we don't have the key. How are we to get through it?"

Keith raised a finger and opened his mouth, but then paused and looked a bit more uncertain. Suddenly, the edges of the gate glowed white and the doors of the gate slid open with a loud noise, a powerful gust of wind blowing from behind them. Keith shrugged. "Like that?"

"Okay, this is just too weird." Helen said. "I feel like we're getting pushed around by some supernatural force that just defied all laws of the Shadow Realm and opened a gate without a key. Does anyone else think this might be just a little too good to be true?"

"Too good to be true or not, we should go." Drake said. The voice in his head was screaming at him that he should enter.

"What makes you say that?" Brooklyn said.

"Gut feeling."

"I don't like it." MacArthur said. "In all my years in the military, every time I've gone with a gut feeling it didn't turn out too well. I don't like going on gut feelings."

"That's all well and good, at least you have a reason." Flynn said. "But I have the same thing. And I always go with gut feelings. So we're going in." He stood in front of the gate and looked through. A cold gust of wind came through the opening. Flynn backed away slowly. "Hmm…"

"Come on." Drake said, and walked through the gate. As soon as he put his foot through the gate he felt as if something had been torn from his chest. For a moment he could feel nothing. The only thing he had was a sense of consciousness, like his body had vanished and he was just a floating hunk of intelligent life with no form.

_What's going on?_ He thought. _Did I screw up? Did I die?_

_Not exactly._ Said the voice in his head. _You've been separated from your body temporarily as you move between the levels of the Shadow Realm. The levels of the Realm are not physically connected to each other. So to move between them your spirit must be temporarily separated from your body and moved to the other level._

_Weird._ Drake thought.

_You do realize that I can hear your thoughts here?_ The voice said.

_That's even weirder._ Drake thought. _What will happen once I get there?_

_You will be re-united with your body._ The spirit said. _It has been temporarily atomized so it could be transported to the next level._

Drake was confused. _Atomized?_

_You don't want to know. You're almost there now._

And all of a sudden, Drake could taste and feel and hear and smell again. He reached for the rifle that should have been slung over his shoulder and was relieved to find that it was still there. The voice had said that only his body had been transported; he had been a little worried that his gear wouldn't be coming with him.

And then he realized that he couldn't see. It was pitch dark in that level of the Shadow Realm, and even when he waved his hand in front of his face he couldn't see it.

_This presents a problem._ Drake thought. _How will I know if the others followed me? That was kind of rash…_ All of a sudden, something large and heavy fell on him. Drake grunted as the thing flattened him to the ground. The thing got up off of him.

"Is that you, Drake?" It whispered in a feminine voice.

"Helen!" Drake gasped. "You fell on me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said. "But please try to keep your voice down. There could be something in here."

"And we can't see it." Drake said. He was careful to keep his voice down. Something else fell on him. "Ow!"

"What the…" it said, and stood up. "Who did I just land on? Drake or Helen?"

"Keith… you could use some physical activity… you're heavy." Drake said, and moved from his original position. He didn't want more people falling on him.

"Hey, that's because I actually do all the homework our teachers set us."

"Hey!"

"Keep it down!" Helen hissed urgently. "Do I need to remind you that we don't want to be heard?"

"Especially since we can't see if something is coming up on us." Keith said. Drake heard him rummage in his pocket. "Let's see here…" He struck something on his pant leg and it started glowing. It didn't provide much light. The light extended only as far as the flame did, and then perhaps an inch outside it. "Well, that's a little disappointing."

"Yeah. You'd need about fifty of those to make a dent in this darkness." Helen said.

"That's strange, since this is the brightest I've got."

Another light appeared in the darkness. "Who's got the light over there?" cam Yugi's voice.

"I do. Keith."

"Ah. Flynn, MacArthur, and Brooklyn are right behind me."

"You might want to move, then." Drake said. "These two fell on top of me because I didn't." The light came closer.

"This darkness… it isn't natural. We must be very careful if we are to survive this."

"Yeah." Drake said, squinting out into the darkness. "I still can't see anything."

"And even that's an understatement." Came Flynn's voice.

"This darkness… it's heavy. I can feel it pressing down on me." Helen said.

"Yeah, it's hard to breathe. And I think it's also a little warmer down here than in the first level." Yugi said.

"Well, that would follow with the fact that as we go further in, we get closer to a gate to Hell." Keith said.

"But these levels aren't connected, physically." Drake said.

Keith probably shrugged, because there was a pause before he spoke again. "I don't know if that matters. If there's a skyscraper, and the stairs aren't there, then we have a situation similar to that of which I am thinking. Assuming that there is a fire on the bottom floor of the skyscraper, even if the floors are not connected by physical means, if you can somehow move between the floors, the closer you get to the bottom, then the closer you are to the flames, and the hotter it gets."

"I see." Drake said.

Another light came on. "I see two lights. Is everyone here?" came MacArthur's voice.

"Yeah, I think so." Brookyln's voice said.

"Everyone is." Drake assured him. "Now where to?"

"Well, where is where?"

"What?"

"I can't see. Can you?" Keith said. "In other words, where are we supposed to go? As humans, we rely a ridiculous amount on our sight. Without it, we're helpless unless we've been blind all of our life."

"Well, we have to do something." Drake said. "We can't just stand here in the dark, can we?"

"Slow down there, loverboy. It's more than likely if we move, we'll run into something." Flynn said.

"And that something will probably kill us all." MacArthur said.

"I know, but I don't want to watch the world go to hell standing here doing nothing." Drake said.

"Nor do I." Flynn said. "But there's little we can do at this point. This mission was doomed to fail from the beginning. We really had no chance…"

"We still do!" Drake said. "Don't be so negative."

"Well, look at the situation. I can't help but be negative."

_He's got a point._ Drake thought. _It's pitch-black, and for all we know there's a fiend army right in front of us waiting until we take a step forward. We were set up to fail… wait… didn't Matt say something about this? _Drake racked his mind. He remebered something that Matt had once said to him while he was alone in the depths of the first level. _"When you are in a group, the power of the Shadow Realm cannot touch you."_ _But does it apply here? We're in a group, but the darkness is still too thick to see through._

_Are you really a group, or just a collection of individuals who happen to be in the same spot?_ The voice in his head said.

_What do you mean?_

_Are you truly united?_

_You're right… we're not. Despite everything, I don't think that we all actually accept each other as a group. MacArthur is still an outsider, really, too much older and different from the rest of us. And I don't think that Flynn, Keith, and Brooklyn have truly accepted Helen back. But how do I tell them that?_

_That is not my place to tell you._

Drake contemplated the idea. "I think I know what we need to do." He said.

"Does this have something to do with voices in your head again?" Keith said.

"Well… partially, yes. But it also has something to do with something Matt told me last year."

"If Matt told you something, wouldn't we remember it, too?" Flynn said.

"Remember the one time I went off on my own?"

"Oh, yeah. I remember. That was one of the biggest mistakes we ever made, not listening to you then. What is it now?"

"Well, when I was alone, it felt like the temperature was dropping and I felt a horrid despair. Then Matt's good spirit came to me and told me something,: 'When you are in a group, the power of the Shadow Realm cannot touch you.'"

"Okay, but that's moot. We are in a group, and it's just as dark as ever." MacArthur said.

"Are we really a group, or are we just a collection of individuals who happen to be in the same spot at the same time?" Drake asked quietly.

There was silence. "What do you mean by that?" Brooklyn asked. "I've never gotten fine distinctions, and that's almost on Matt-level for fine distinctions."

"Well… it's kind of like… we're just here together, we're not really united. I mean, MacArthur's still kind of an outsider here; he's older than all of us and is from the military. Furthermore, I don't think a few of you truly accept Helen anymore, because of how rude she was earlier."

There was another silence. Drake felt someone lay a hand on his shoulder.

"The kid's right." MacArthur said. "We're not an army of one, as we say about the American military and strive to create every day. We're still an army of a few, and those pieces tend to function independent of each other. I'll admit that I've felt a little separated from you all because of my training and the sheer difference between us all. But I'm here to the end, and I would rather you didn't treat me any differently than you would one of your peers."

Drake felt someone else grip his shoulder. "I'm with him here." Helen said. "And I'll probably be with him till we succeed here or die here. I know exactly what he's talking about, the voice in my head is telling me exactly what he just said."

Drake saw Yugi's light move behind him. "I agree." Yugi said. "All my life I've tried to encourage unity. I cannot discourage this without being hypocritical."

"I cannot help but agree with Yugi." Brooklyn said. "I still don't like the way Helen has acted, but I have to put this aside…at least for now." Drake heard Brooklyn move behind him.

There was a pause. Drake knew that it had to be hard for Flynn and Keith, both of whom seemed prone to holding grudges. Flynn in particular had been very annoyed with Helen. Drake heard whispers but couldn't hear what they were saying. It was apparently quite a heated conversation. Drake thought that he didn't want to hear what was going on over there.

Slowly, steadily, Keith's little light moved toward them. Drake, somehow, could now see Keith's face in the light. Drake couldn't begin to describe what Keith looked like.

_He looks kinda sick,_ Drake thought. _I wonder…_

"Alright, I'll put aside my grudge for the time we're together, for the sake of the whole. I still don't like Helen, but I'll at least cooperate with her and not hassle her any more for the duration of this trip." Keith said.

"I'm not going to go into some huge speech." Flynn said. "So I'll just say that I concur with everything Keith said."

Suddenly Drake could see. It wasn't much, but it was better. At least he didn't feel completely helpless. He could see about three feet in front of him, all in sepia tone. "Well, that's better."

"Yes, quite." Keith said. "Sight is important. Now let's get going." He turned and began to walk off.

"Wait!" Helen said, apparently able to see beyond him. It was too late. Keith stumbled and tripped over a large black shape.

"What the heck?" Keith said, rolled over, and got to his feet. "Oh, crap…" The shape had started to move. Keith had tripped over a sleeping shadow hound, and now it was waking up. Drake could see its eyes scanning the area for whatever had woken it up, and somehow Drake knew that it could see perfectly in the infernal darkness.

Flynn whipped out his rifle and shot the rising dog in the eye. It yelped and called out. All over the room other dogs were getting to their feet. The beasts surrounded them, and now the beasts were aware of their presence. Everyone unslung their weapons and prepared to fight them off. The dogs rushed at them with a complete disregard for their own safety.

One of the dogs jumped at Drake, claws out, fangs barred. Drake lifted his rifle to defend himself. The dogs landed on it and snapped the gun in half. The dog fell on top of Drake, pinning him to the ground. It seemed to grin as it looked down at him, then it opened its gaping jaw and shot out at his head.

And then suddenly it flew off of Drake, spinning away. MacArthur had shot the thing in the neck with his huge gun, and it was so powerful that the dog had been torn off of Drake. "Thanks!" Drake said.

"Stay alive and you can thank me later!" MacArthur shouted, turning to a dog that was running straight at him. Drake turned to see another dog tearing toward him. Drake waited until the last moment, then dove off to the side. The dog skidded past him but was able to quickly turn around. Now it was coming back toward Drake.

_Great._ Drake said. _It figures that I'm the one who gets to try and fistfight these things! And they're bigger than me! But then again, what else is new?_

_Not much. _Said the voice in his head. The dog leapt at Drake's head. Drake ducked and the dog landed on Drake's back, tearing through the fabric of Drake's shirt and leaving several gashes in his back. Drake's legs gave out under the massive weight of the dog. Drake's forehead hit the floor and he blacked out.


	13. Caught

Chapter 13- Caught

Drake couldn't see and his head hurt like hell. It was incredibly warm wherever he was. He tried to shake his head but couldn't. Not because he didn't have the strength. He couldn't because something was holding him down. He tried to lift his arms. Some outside force held them down. He forced his eyes open but still could see nothing. Everything was a black blur.

_Where am I?_ He thought. _What happened? I remember that thing landing on me, but that's it…_ Some objects began to come into focus. It was very dark in the room, and black shapes were moving about everywhere. He tried to turn his head and finally managed to. His arms and legs were tied to a brown table so tightly that the bindings were cutting into his skin. Blood was slowly trickling out of his wrists and ankles. Drake tried to pull his arms out but it just made him bleed worse.

_How did this happen? How am I still alive?_ Drake thought. Everything started to become clearer. There were candles in brackets on the walls, but they didn't give off much light. There were fiends everywhere, dogs, shadows, intelligent ones, fat ones, and brutish ones. There were a couple of the even more intelligent ones milling about, the kind that most of them had been dueling recently.

_What's going on? It's like some sort of fiend convention… and why aren't they doing anything to me?_ Drake thought. _They have me at their mercy, and they leave me alive? That doesn't go with what I've found out about fiends…_

"They've finally gotten in." said one of the brilliant fiends.

"Who?" said one of the brutes.

"The group with the Accursed One's soul."

"Oh. Good. I've waiting too long. Don't like waiting. Want to kill. Need to kill something!"

"Kill some time. We're still going to be waiting a while."

"Grr!!! There's human in there, can't I kill him?"

"No. You know we need him for the Sacred One."

_The sacred one? The accursed one? Who are they talking about? _Drake thought.

"Who exactly is the sacred one?" said one of the intelligent fiends. "I have heard nothing of him."

"That's right, you wouldn't have, stupid level 1 fiend…" The brilliant fiend sneered. "But I'll tell you, because I don't want you messing up the plans. The Sacred One is the being who resides behind the sixth gate. He is our god. Once he is awakened, we shall rule the world, with the Sacred One at the helm."

"What happen to da boss after dat?" asked one of the fat fiends.

The brilliant fiend smiled evilly. "He becomes the Sacred One's puppet. He doesn't know this, and we shouldn't tell him. He thinks he will rule the world, and he will… but only because the Sacred One will want to have a figurehead to manipulate things and go out to battle so he doesn't have to. But no one can defeat the Sacred One. If he were to go into battle, we would never lose. That is why they locked him in there."

"Ah… dat's good. I don't like dis boss much." Said one of the fat fiends.

"Nor do most of us. But he offers the hope of releasing the Sacred One and destroying the Accursed One's bloodline for all eternity."

"What's so special about the Accursed One?" asked the first brute fiend.

The brilliant fiend rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I wish they had never opened the fifth level, so I didn't have to speak to low-level intellects such as yourself. But I'll tell you anyway. The Accursed One is the only real threat to us. Her line started at Eve and ran down to Hatshepsut, then went through Hatshepsut's firstborn daughter and so on. And so it had arrived at this young Miss Daran. Her mother is dead, and she is the last in the line. If we take her out, we will never be trapped again.

"You see, as long as one of these girls are around, then the Sacred One will remain in bondage. But by sacrificing the girl's soul to the gate, we can free him and ensure his freedom for all eternity!"

"So what are all the other prisoners here for?" asked the intelligent fiend. "If we have the girl, then I see no reason to keep all these people alive."

"You wouldn't, because I haven't told you the next part. The more souls the Sacred One absorbs at the time of his release, then the more powerful he becomes. It also depends on the strength of the souls he is given. We got a good one back there." The brilliant fiend gestured toward Drake. "I can't believe you managed to not kill him. But there's also that one screw-up we had with the powerful one. If we had him, then the Sacred One would be truly powerful."

"You mean that one guy with the weird eye?" asked the brute.

"Yes, him. He was truly powerful… his soul would have made a feast for the Sacred One. The master was not pleased that you killed him. But no matter. He's out of the way now. We can proceed without any hindrances now. The Accursed One is closing in on the gate and her eternal damnation. Once we have given her over to the Lord of Hell, the Sacred One will be free and we can finally emerge into the world." The fiend laughed evilly, and the others followed suit.

_Okay, so quick rundown… _Drake thought. _The Sacred One is what they call the thing behind the gate, who is powerful enough to control the world. The Accursed One is Julie right now, or whoever is the first girl in her line. And her mom is dead… so she's the one they need. Explains why they always went after her… besides making us unable to hold the key and keep it from them. And the Powerful One… they must mean Matt. And they're going to feed me to this "Sacred One!" Well, it least if it does happen, I'll be with Julie…_

"Then again…" The brilliant fiend had stopped laughing. "We only get 1000 years, at least if we don't kill every human while the Sacred One is free. Else, the Divine One will appoint a new Accursed One and the Sacred One will again be sealed… but at that point, it's easy to capture again and release the Sacred One."

"We can just kill all humans." The brute said.

"Yeah." Said the fat one.

_Wait… the Divine One? Who are they talking about?_ Drake thought.

"Yes, the Divine One has always interfered with us… but he shall never stop us this time!" said the brilliant fiend. "The tattered remains of the Anti-Shadow realm force that defeated us last year is close to destruction, and once it is gone, no human would dare stand in our way!

"And once the Sacred One is free, we will be free. We can control all the souls of the world, and do as we please. We will finally be released from this place… and we can torment the world!"

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSS…" the brute hissed. "Torment!" The fiends laughed again.

Drake felt a drop of sweat run down the side of his face. _This is bad._ He thought. _I knew this was bad, but I didn't think it would be this bad. If we fail… we condemn the Earth. I'd rather not be responsible for that… I've got to get out of here._

_Don't bother. _Said the voice in his head. _You won't be able to break those bonds. All you can do now is hope and pray… pray that this "Divine One" they speak of can assist your friends._

_But who is that?_ Drake asked.

_Apparently, you have always known him. Don't ask more, I'm a bit in the dark myself._

_Hmm…_

"You! Prisoner!" one of the fat fiends came over. "We need you on doese feet in a while, but not before we weaken you bit." The fiend clenched a fist and struck Drake in the stomach, hard enough to cause Drake to spit blood. Drake lost his breathe.

_Weaken me, or kill me?!? _He thought.

_Be still, be calm. You'll make it. _The voice said. Drake felt a familiar presence, a new presence, not the same as the first voice. It was so warm that Drake felt good despite being hit with what felt like a ton of bricks. The presence came in contact with Drake's spirit and he suddenly felt tired. He couldn't feel the pain anymore. Despite the blows, Drake fell asleep.


	14. Missing Someone

Chapter 14- Missing Someone

Flynn was shooting without aiming at anything in particular. The sepia-toned sight he had had moments before was gone with the others, and he had no idea what was going on. All he could hear was shouts and screams and the howls of the dogs. He didn't know what he was shooting, and frankly he didn't care. His self-preservation instinct was as its strongest, and he was going to kill everything near him to keep himself alive.

_Damn it, Drake._ Flynn thought. _This is all your fault!_ Something in his head had told him that to keep going on this crazy mission was bad idea. But this capped it all off. Delving into this cursed darkness, going after the soul of a friend- who Flynn generally liked- was foolish. He thought it was a better idea to try to hole up somewhere and wait out the 1000 years and then try something. But that was mostly hindsight.

A dog clipped Flynn's shoulder and knocked him to the ground. _Blasted things,_ he thought. _They can see! I've always hated big dogs…_ He shot in the general direction it could have gone and hoped. But he knew better than to hope anymore. Nothing had gone as was expected or hoped. He didn't want to be there anymore- not after this. He had figured that getting to know those two weird kids at the entrance exam would be a good idea- after all, the weird kids always are the best. And so they were, but this was what he got.

After they had nearly died from the huge fiend army near the gate, he knew they wouldn't be getting out of this with all of them alive. He was surprised that they had all survived as long as they did. It wasn't like a movie where they were the heroes who were invincible in battle and the hordes of enemies could never prevail against them. This was reality.

_Then again, _Flynn thought. _I used to think things like this were fantasy, and here we are, shooting and killing them so they don't kill us._ He felt a breeze of wind to his left and spun around, swinging out his foot at the same time. The top of his foot connected with the bottom of the dog's neck and Flynn felt it snap. He smiled grimly. _At least I'm in shape, thanks to all that Marine training._ A dog landed on his back and tried to take a chunk out of Flynn's head. Flynn dropped his rifle, cursed, grabbed the dog's front leg, and pulled the dog over him, slamming it to the ground.

Flynn dove to the ground, searching frantically for his gun. _Damn it!_ He thought. _Why now?!?_ His hand hit something metallic and he picked it up. _This isn't my rifle… _His eyes widened. "OH SHIT!!!"_ IT'S BEEPING!!!_ Flynn threw the thing as hard as he could away from him. The thing blew up, illuminating the room with a blinding light. Flynn threw his arms up to shield his face from the blast and felt the heat searing against them. The light died away and Flynn lowered his arms.

The room had been lit. Candles in brackets on the walls had been lit by the heat of the explosion. Everything within fifty feet of the explosion had been killed, except for Flynn and the others.

"Well, that worked well." Brooklyn said.

"What was it?" MacArthur asked.

"Well, it was a powerful hand grenade that's really not supposed to kill anything, but rather burn them or blind them. But as these things live in the shadows too much… I guess it killed them. And now we can see!" Brooklyn glanced at the candles. "Those must be really good candles."

"No time for jokes." Flynn said. "Is everyone okay?"

"Ye- wait…" Keith glanced around. "Where's Drake?"

"He's gone!" Yugi said. Helen opened her mouth and moved her hands to the sides of her mouth as if to shout, but Keith noticed and put his hand over her mouth.

"Not now!" He said. "We can't afford to attract more attention."

"But…" She looked scared.

"Helen." Yugi placed a hand on her shoulder. "We can't afford to attract the attention. I know it hurts to have lost Drake somewhere, but getting ourselves killed is not going to help him."

"What if he's hurt and can't get to us?"

"Then he can shout for us." MacArthur said. "Or we'll hear him in his pain. It's standard military procedure. If you're hurt, you call for the medic, the medic isn't going to stand up somewhere and shout 'Anyone hurt?!?' That would put him in unnecessary danger."

"Okay…" Helen looked worried.

"Okay… what now?" Flynn said. "Now that we're down here, where are we going? Isn't navigating this hell supposed to be Yugi's job?"

"Yes, but this is beyond my experience. I've never been in farther than the first level." Yugi said.

"Well, that doesn't do us much good!" Flynn said. He turned away, aggravated. After all this they still were in the dark- figuratively as well as literally. It was starting to really bug him.

Brooklyn moved toward a candle and tried to remove it from the wall bracket. It wouldn't budge. Brooklyn's face contorted in frustration, and he yanked again. Still nothing happened. Brooklyn, apparently very frustrated, put his feet up against the wall and began to push against it. Suddenly the entire bracket popped off the wall. Brooklyn, now with nothing to hold onto, fell onto his back, the candle still in his hand.

"Ow." He said, holding the candle up. "But at least I got the candle!"

"And what is that going to do for us?" MacArthur said.

"Well, if we're going deeper, we're going to need some light. And as these seem to be rather effective, I thought I would take one."

"Why should we bother going deeper?" Flynn said. "We've had three losses now, is there even a point any more? If we keep going, we're going to get killed. At this point, I feel that it is a better idea to get the hell out of here and try to find a place to hole up for the 1000 years."

"There are no other humans left on the planet, save the world leaders at the UN." Helen said. "Do you honestly believe you can live for a 1000 years?"

"We don't have to. I'm sure there are other people around here we could find and hole up with…"

"Flynn, I think you're being a little irrational." Keith said. "Going out to find a place to hole up is just as dangerous as running around in here. And this way, we might save the world instead of having to destroy an oppressive world rule in 1000 years. Even if we find a good place to hole up, they could still find us and kill us before the 1000 years are up."

Flynn considered this. He had known all this, but he had hoped that they wouldn't. _Guess the days where I could put stuff past Keith are gone. And Helen too… she's changed in a weird way I don't really like._ He thought. _I cannot deny that they are right… but I don't want to die here!_

_You are not going to die here. _Said the voice in the back of his head. It had been nudging him around for a while, talking to him only when he was resistant to going deeper.

_How do I know I can trust you?_

You don't know. That's what makes this sort of thing interesting. But I know you have a hero complex, and you're not going to rest until you save the human race.

_Hmph._ Flynn thought. _He's right._

_Actually, I'm a she._

_Whoops. Sorry. I don't want to see the world go to hell while I go and sit it out somewhere safe… I can't bear to watch that. I want to kill them all so that they'll never have it. It's our world, not theirs… _Adrift in his thoughts, Flynn turned away from the group again and looked off into the distance.

A shadow stood several yards off, and Flynn was about to raise his rifle and shoot it when he realized it wasn't quite the right shape. It stood upright and actually had legs, despite the fact that it was almost entirely transparent. It was wearing a black cloak that had made Flynn think it was a shadow. Whatever it was wasn't facing him. Then, suddenly and in a blur of motion that disrupted Flynn's ability to perceive features, it turned its head, looked him straight in the eyes, and vanished.

"What was that?" Flynn said.

"What?" Brooklyn said.

"There was a thing over there…" Flynn was scared. He didn't know why. Whatever that thing was, it scared the crap out of him. The only thing that had ever done that… was Matt.

_But that couldn't have been him! _Flynn thought. _He's long dead!!!_

"Flynn, are you okay?" Keith asked. "You're sweating."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Flynn said. "Uh, what was I saying?"

"You wanted to get out of here." Helen said. "And we were trying to dissuade you."

"Was I?" Flynn didn't see any reason in leaving any more. "Alright, scratch that, let's go."

"What?" Yugi said. "What made you change your mind?"

"Don't know." Flynn looked back to where he had seen the shadow-like thing. Whatever it was, it had just convinced him to keep going. They had to find Drake and they had to save Julie and the world. And he would to die before he failed.


	15. In Too Deep

Chapter 15- In Too Deep

Flynn walked toward the wall and grabbed a candle. It came out of its bracket without too much hassle.

"What was so hard about that, Brooklyn?" He asked.

"I don't know! The candle doesn't like me." Brooklyn said.

"Perhaps it is because you grabbed the bracket and not the candle." Keith suggested. A few of them snickered and Brooklyn just looked embarrassed.

"Oh, right." He said. "Well, any way, onwards!" He marched forward with his candle held aloft, then stopped abruptly. "I have no idea where I'm going."

"Your guess is as good as ours." Yugi said. "You know none of us any idea where we're going either."

"Good point." Brooklyn said. "In that case, I'm not leading."

"Why not?" MacArthur said. "You seem qualified."

"I hate leading. I don't know why I volunteered to lead this crazy thing."

"Actually, technically, I'm the leader of this detachment." Flynn said.

"Good! Now take command!" Brooklyn moved back. "I'm done with this leading shenanigan."

"Fine then." Flynn moved forward, holding his candle out in front of him. The light of the candle banished the darkness before him and allowed him to see the corpses of several dogs. Their black blood was all over the floor. Flynn moved forwards and noticed a streak of red in amongst the black. "Anyone bleeding?"

Everyone denied it. Flynn checked his shoulder and noted that it wasn't bleeding. "This must be Drake's blood, then…" He knelt down and lowered his candle closer. The trail of blood ran along the passageway and out of sight at the edge of the light. "We should follow it."

"Yes, we should." Yugi said. "It may lead us to our friend."

Flynn walked along the trail of blood. Suddenly, stars flashed in his eyes and there was a sharp pain in his head. He staggered back and looked up while the others snickered a little in the background.

"What's so funny?!?" Flynn asked.

"Well, you just ran headfirst into a wall." Helen said. "It was pretty funny."

"This doesn't make sense!" Flynn said, placing his hand on the wall. "The blood leads up to it, but…" He slammed into the wall. "…the wall…" He slammed into it again. "…won't…" Flynn crashed into the wall again, this time with the help of Keith and MacArthur. "…budge." Flynn slid down the wall, massaging his shoulder and panting a little.

"There must be something special about it." Yugi said, and placed his hand on it. Flynn held his candle close to it and noticed inscriptions on the wall, and an edge carved into the stone. Yugi traced the inscription with a finger, his other hand under his chin. After a little while, he stood up and shook his head.

"We cannot pass through this door." He said.

"Why not?" Helen asked.

"Only the fiends and people they want in may pass through. And they clearly do not want us to go in." Yugi stepped back. "We'll have to find a way around."

"Curses…" Brooklyn said. "That means we have to walk more. I hate physical activity." Everyone laughed.

"Alright, enough." Flynn said. "Let's get moving before more fiends show up."

"We tend to do that quite a lot." Keith commented.

"Ummmm… yeah." Brooklyn said. "And with good reason." Flynn led them down a hallway and around a corner. The path split into three sections. Flynn groaned.

"Now what?" He said. "Which way are we supposed to go?"

"Don't ask me." Keith said. "How am I supposed to know?"

"That question was more like 'hopefully someone knows the answer' rather than 'someone has to know the answer.'"

"I see."

Flynn stood and contemplated the passages before him. Each one was identical- it was basically choosing on a whim. There was nothing to go on, so he just had to hope he got lucky- or that the mastermind didn't alter the path so that it lead to certain death and destruction. Flynn held up a finger.

"We are going to go… that way." He arbitrarily flicked an empty bullet casing down the rightmost path.

"What made you decide on that?" MacArthur said.

"Absolutely nothing but a whim to go right."

"I feel secure in the knowledge of that." MacArthur said facetiously.

"Do you have a better idea?" Flynn asked.

"Does anyone?"

"Not a one." Helen said.

"Then we go this way." MacArthur took a step in that direction. "Correct?"

"Right." Flynn said, and stepped past MacArthur to take the lead. He held his candle out in front of him and began along the passage, the others in his wake.

For a long time they walked with Flynn at the helm. Then suddenly the path branched into three new ones again. There was a bullet casing in the rightmost path.

_Wait a second,_ He thought. _This is Repetition Syndrome! We're stuck in an eternal loop!_ He looked at Brooklyn, Keith, then Yugi. Each seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"Repetition Syndrome." Brooklyn said. "We're stuck unless something alters the circumstances."

"What do you mean?" Helen asked, and Yugi outlined the Syndrome. "Oh. That means… we're stuck for an indefinite period of time?"

"Until something else changes the circumstances drastically." Keith said. "And that may not ever happen…"

"Wait a minute…" Brooklyn peeked around the corner they had come around the arrive at the crossroads. He ducked back quickly. "Oh no."

"What is it?" MacArthur asked.

"The army bearing Julie's soul is coming down the hall."

"Okay, ready yourselves." Flynn said. "We're going to take it back."

"Are you mad?!?" Keith asked. "You know what happened last time we took them on!"

"Crazy is sometimes a good thing." Brooklyn said, preparing his laser. "Let's do this."

Keith shook his head but still clicked a new clip into his rifle. "This is ludicrous…"

"Everyone up against the walls." Flynn said, and everyone moved to the sides of the room. "When they come in here, we're going to catch them in a crossfire and kill every last one of them. If we don't, we die and fail."

"How can you be so calm about that?" Keith said.

"Don't know, but don't talk." Flynn pushed his back against the wall harder and waited. Shadows began to creep along the walls as the army drew nearer. He could smell them now- the reeking scent of many sweaty bodies in a confined area. The fiends had to be tired. A blue light was creeping around the corner a little behind the first shadow. Now Flynn could see the first fiend. Its eyes were carefully scanning the darkness, searching for the sign of… something. Its eyes fixed on Helen and it opened its mouth.

"NOW!" Flynn shouted, and opened fire. The fiend went down before it could utter a cry, but the gunfire alerted the other fiends to their presence. The blue light moved away, and Flynn charged into the crowd, firing all of the way. He knew the others were somewhere behind him, outside the group, trading fire with the frontline. He had decided that he was going to get to Julie's soul while they distracted the other fiends.

A fiend reached out and took a swipe at Flynn's head. Flynn ducked, pulled a switchblade out of his pocket, and stabbed the fiend in the hand. The roar of the fiend alerted the others to Flynn's presence in their midst. Evidently they hadn't noticed him before. The crowd began to move forward at a ridiculous pace, probably trying to simply run past the feeble little blockade Flynn and the others had created.

The fiend bearing Julie's soul was out of Flynn's reach. Flynn would have stood still and watched it pass in anguish if he could have afforded to. But he couldn't, so he kept moving and killing anything close to him. Suddenly, the fiends were through and he and the others were left standing alone at the crossroads.

"Don't just stand there, after them!" Flynn said, and rushed past them toward the group. Some of the fiends at the back turned and opened fire on Flynn, but he threw himself to the ground and dodged the shots, then returned fire. Now the blue light was scampering down the hall, but the other fiends were not. They had stopped completely in the hall and were going to stay there to prevent Flynn and the others from passing.

Flynn dropped into a little alcove to his right and fired blindly around the corner. The stone formations of the alcove prevented him from seeing a whole lot, but at this point he needed the cover. He peeked out to get a good shot and froze.

Keith had just made it down the hallway, firing with every step. Finally one of the fiends decided that getting a hit would be a good idea. The shot clipped Keith in the right knee and he staggered. The fiend's rifle spat out five more rounds. One more hit Keith in the thigh, another in the lower right stomach, a third in his diaphragm, a fourth in his left lung, and the fifth in the center of his forehead.

Keith's eyes widened in shock as blood poured out of the wounds. Slowly he fell to the ground, and the fiends decided that their job was complete and ran farther down the hallway. Keith hit the ground, dead, a pool of blood forming rapidly around him.


	16. Things Get Worse! Helen Defeated

Chapter 16- Things Get Worse! Helen Defeated

Flynn jumped out of his alcove, hoping to get a good shot at the retreating fiends. They had already gone. Flynn swore and kicked at a few shell casings on the ground. He knew this would end badly. And now he had living- well, dead proof. Keith was dead, and Flynn was really pissed off. Keith had been his best friend for the last year. And now he was gone.

The others finally caught up. All of them caught sight of the dead body of Keith and looked away, shocked and disgusted. There was a sound from down the hall and Flynn raised his rifle, fully prepared to blast whatever the hell came through the opening. A brilliant fiend walked out, smiling evilly. Flynn shot him for smiling, knowing it wouldn't do anything.

"Must we really settle our differences in such a barbaric fashion?" The fiend asked, shrugging off the damage as if it was nothing.

"Yes." Flynn said, and pulled the trigger again, putting a hole through the fiend's head. The hole closed in less than a second. The fiend grinned evilly.

"You're a fool, it would be no fun to duel you. So, I'll take her out." The fiend pointed at Helen.

"Fine then." She said, sounding a bit shaky.

_She's probably still in shock over what happened to Keith._ Flynn said. _I hate her, but I'm a little worried about her._

Both of them activated their duel disks. "Let's duel!"

Helen: 4000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 4000**

"I'll start." Said the brilliant fiend. He drew a card. "I'll set one monster facedown, and then I shall add a single facedown card. Let's see what you have."

"Okay." Helen drew a card. "This should do it… I summon Insect Knight (Earth/Insect, 1900/1500) in attack mode! Then, I'll activate the spell card Nobleman of Crossout to remove your facedown monster from the game!"

"That was my wimpy Cannon Soldier. No matter."

"You'll regret his loss after this! Insect Knight, attack him directly!"

"No. I activate Stronghold, the Moving Fortress. This is a very unique trap card that is summoned in defense mode when I activate it. (Machine-Type/Earth/Level 4/ATK 0/DEF 2000) This triggers a replay, would you like to reconsider your attack?" The fiend grinned nastily.

"I'm not that stupid!" She said. She studied her hand. "I guess I will end my turn."

"Good." The fiend drew a card. "Have fun with your pain. For now I sacrifice Stronghold to summon Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Chimera (Earth/Machine/Effect, 2300/1300) in attack mode! If I had sacrificed a certain monster to get him, then I would have obtained a bonus, but Stronghold is not one of those monsters. This does not change the fact that my monster is much stronger than yours! Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Chimera, attack her Knight!"

Helen: 3600 

**Brilliant Fiend: 4000**

Helen groaned as the pain of having her monster destroyed hit her. "Ow… that hurt."

"Not as much as it will later, I assure you. I'm not quite done with you. But for now, I'll have to end my turn."

"Good…" Helen drew a card and studied her hand again.

"Having trouble getting out of this?" The fiend taunted.

"No! I'm trying to think ahead." Helen slipped a card out of the center of her hand. "I'll just set this in defense mode and end my turn."

"Ha! What a waste of a move." The fiend drew his card. As he looked at it he grinned again. "Now it's time to unleash the full power of my deck. I activate the Ancient Gear Castle!" The ground shook as the massive fortress rose on the field. "And with its arrival all of my Ancient Gear monsters gain 300 attack points, giving my Ancient Gear Chimera 2600!"

"Crap, she's in a bad place." Flynn said.

"We may lose yet another member of this force…" Brooklyn said. "This is getting costly…"

"Very." MacArthur said.

"And I'm not going to attack just yet! I will now summon Yellow Gadget (Earth/Machine/Effect, 1200/1200) in attack mode! When he is summoned, I can move a Red Gadget from my deck to my hand. So I'll do that." A card stuck out of the fiend's deck and he added it to his hand. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Killing you! Go, Chimera, attack her monster!"

Helen flinched as her monster was crushed under the fiend's Chimera. "Fortunately that was Needle Worm, so now you must discard five cards from the top of your deck."

The fiend shuffled five cards from the top of his deck to the graveyard. "Oh well, I don't need them to beat you. Now, Yellow Gadget, attack her directly!"

Helen: 2400 

**Brilliant Fiend: 4000**

Helen screamed in pain and fell to her knees, spitting out blood. The fiend laughed. "This is going to be fun…"

Helen slowly stood. "I can't… lose… are you finished?"

"Yes, try to get up so I can push you down again!"

Helen drew a card. "I summon the mighty Chainsaw Insect (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2400/0) in attack mode!"

"That's excellent!" Yugi said. "That has to be one of the strongest monsters in her deck."

"It is." Flynn said.

"Then, I activate Laser Cannon Armor, to give him three hundred more attack points! (2700) Now, Chainsaw Insect, kill his Chimera!"

Helen: 2200 

**Brilliant Fiend: 3900**

The fiend didn't even flinch. Actually, it looked like he smiled, but Flynn couldn't tell with all the smoke from the explosion.

"Because my Chainsaw Insect fought a monster, you get to draw a card." Helen said. The fiend did so. "I'm done."

"Good." The fiend drew again. "Now it's time to kill you. I sacrifice my Yellow Gadget to summon the most powerful monster in my deck, Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon!"

"How?!?" Helen said. "You need two tributes!"

"I'm using the Castle for one of them! By this method, one monster can count as two tributes, because I gain a counter for every monster I summon! So here he is, the Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon! (Earth/Machine/Effect, 3000/2000) Now, I will activate the Ancient Gear Tank, to give him 600 extra attack points! (3600) Now, Dragon, attack her Insect!"

Helen: 1300 

**Fiend: 3900**

"And now, because he inflicted battle damage and was summoned by sacrificing my Yellow Gadget, my Dragon inflicts 600 more damage to your life points!"

Helen: 700 

**Fiend: 3900**

Helen let out a piercing scream as convulsions racked her body, sending her facedown to the ground. The fiend grinned evilly. "You should stay down there, because this is the end for you. I activate Ancient Gear Explosive, destroying my monster and inflicting damage to you equal to half its original attack points." The giant metal dragon exploded, showering Helen in fire and metal parts.

Helen: 0 

**Fiend: 3900**

Helen screamed again, but it faded into nothingness as she went still. The fiend laughed.

"No…" Flynn said silently. "Not another…"

"This is bad…" Brooklyn said.

The fiend stretched out his right hand, the one without the duel disk on it. Helen's body rolled over, as if moved by an outside force, and a blue mist-like, glowing substance began to swim about in her eyes and mouth. The fiend closed his hand and moved it back toward him, as if pulling something toward him. The blue substance that Flynn now knew was Helen's soul began to stream out of her mouth and around her eyes. Helen gasped in pain as her life was torn from the shell that preserved it.

Helen's soul energy streamed into the fiend's open left hand. For about five seconds the stream of blue went from the fiend's hand to Helen's face. Then, the last of Helen's soul was extracted from her body, and she stopped moving completely. The fiend grinned evilly.

"Now the Sacred One can become more powerful than ever!" He said, turned, and ran away. Flynn stood still in shock. MacArthur grasped his shoulder.

"We need to move, soldier!" He shouted, his old habits apparently taking over. Flynn snapped out of it and took a step forward. The others seemed to follow him.

"We need to intercept that guy!" Flynn said. "And we need to catch up to that group!" He slung his rifle and dashed forward, not really caring if they were actually following him. He was going to save the world, damn it, or die trying. And from the way things had been going, he was going to die trying.


	17. Watching

Chapter 17- Watching

We saw him die. He fell over, all shot up… that was too bad.

Damn right. I don't need this world to go to hell yet! I need it around so I can fuck around in it.

_Calm yourself. There's no need to get worked up._

What the fuck are you talking about? That Keith fool got himself killed! How am I supposed to remain calm?!?

Because we are one, and if you do not, life becomes harder for the rest of us.

_Yes! Calm yourself. You are generating unnecessary turbulence._

…Damn.

And then… that one came back. That monster came back… and he stole her soul. Poor girl, three times in two years.

_She needs a hug._

We aren't giving anyone any fucking hugs.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. But not until all of those things die… I want to rip every last one of them limb from limb or tear out all of their internal organs or-

WHO'S THIKING OF BUNNIES?!?

_That was me. Sorry._

Yeah, you'd better get that shit out of my mind…

_It's my mind too!_

_Turbulence!_

_Sorry._ Sorry.

Yes, stop thinking of bunnies for now. They do make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, but that's not appropriate right now. This is not a time for happy feelings…

_No, this is a time for righteous justice._

I don't like administering justice.

You'll get to kill things.

Okay, that kind of justice is fine then. When do we start?

**Once you return.**

When is that?

**Once I let you.**

No offense, but why haven't you yet? I could have stopped this from happening… oh, never mind. I can't understand you anyway.

**All in my time, all in good time.**

Very well.

I'm getting very impatient. Granted, we've killed some stuff, but we haven't done a serious killing in what feels like ages!

_Why do we have to kill stuff all the time?_

Because of what happened seven- some-odd years ago, remember?

_Vaguely._

At least this time won't be as hard as the last. Are you ready?

_Yes, we are._

You'll be put into extensive use, because there are no limits left on us. We're going to kill every last one of them if we have to… they're not taking over the world. And I'm not going to let them kill any of the others.

**Speaking of which, he is coming in.**

Who? _Who?_ Who?

**The one who died.**

Oh. _Oh. _Oh.

_Can we take him back?_

Yes, I would like to take him back. It's cruel to leave him dead.

**Take him. I will allow it.**

Thank you. Can I go?

**Return.**

Thank you.

I swear you're going soft.

Look at what happened to us. How can I not?

Well, it really pisses me off.

_Has the killer finally gotten it?_

I had it long ago. Have they returned to us yet?

_**We are here. They are split.**_

Yes, I saw. We're returning. And we are going to save them if it's the last thing we do. And it probably will be the last thing we ever do.


	18. By the Sixth Gate

Chapter 18- By the Sixth Gate

The pounding went on for seemingly forever, but Drake didn't feel a punch of it. The voice inside had given him a kind of sanctuary inside himself where the fiends couldn't harm him, and he would stay there until the beatings ceased. He knew that his body was bruised and that a few of his ribs had to be broken, but he didn't feel it. Not yet anyhow.

Finally the fiend stopped his pounding and backed away. Two more fiends came up, unbound his arms and legs, tied his arms to his body, and pushed him forward. Drake, unable to use his arms for balance, fell facedown. The fiends grabbed him roughly, lifted him off the ground, and set him on his feet.

_These guys are just brimming with hospitality. _Drake thought. _I wonder where they're taking me…_ One of the fiends gave him another little shove.

"Get moving, slime. We need to be there on time so you can die as scheduled." He said.

"Well that doesn't give me much motivation to get moving now does it?" Drake said. The fiend hit him over the back of the head and Drake fell over again. The fiend crouched down next to Drake's face.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." The fiend hissed. "Either you walk there or we kick you there." Drake shook his head. The fiend stood up and kicked Drake so that Drake rolled several feet. Drake grunted. Another rib must've broken. But he wasn't going to move. They were going to have to kick him all the way to wherever they were trying to get him.

The fiend kicked him again and Drake saw him smile. The fiend was going to enjoy this, but Drake didn't care. He wasn't going to bend to the wishes of any fiend. He was going to take the hard way every time it was offered, and he was going to resist them all the way to his death. Drake placed his hands against the floor and braced himself to make it harder for the fiend to move him.

And so it continued for almost an hour, with the fiends taking turns kicking Drake along, and Drake doing everything within his very limited power to prevent himself from moving. Finally, after Drake was severely bruised and bleeding from several cuts from the fiend's clawed feet. They again grabbed him by both arms and stood him up.

There were fiends of every kind moving about everywhere. None of them seemed to be doing anything, but all were moving as if they had an important job and they intended on doing it. It was extremely dark, particularly at one end of the room. And Drake could guess why when he saw what was at the end.

A massive gate was at the end. The posts were made of obsidian, and the edges of the gate were made of some kind of fire-red material that Drake couldn't name. There was a huge obsidian plaque on the middle posts of the gate, and on it was inscribed the numeral "666."

_This has to be the sixth gate!_ Drake thought. He looked around. There were other people here and there, all of them bound and most of them gagged. All of them looked incredibly scared. All were in various states of injury. _And those must be the other people they're going to sacrifice and open the gate with to give this "Sacred One" of theirs more power!_ Drake turned to one of the fiends who had brought him down.

"What exactly are you planning to do?" Drake asked.

"Hahahaha… since you're going to die anyway, I'll tell you." The fiend said. "Behind that gate resides the most powerful creature you have ever seen. You see, the sixth gate is connected to the place you humans like to call hell, but is properly called Hades. Once we rid the world of the Accursed One, the gate will open, and he shall be released."

"What kind of monster is behind there?"

"Only the second strongest being in existence!" exclaimed the second fiend. "After the King of Hades, of course. The Sacred One commands the power of the Shadows and of the Shadow Fire. Once he is awakened, he will take command of us and our mastermind and then will take over the entire world for eternity! He will wield the power of this realm against your kind and destroy your inferior race. None of your kind are adept at the Shadow Games, and the Sacred One's power over the Shadow Fire will make them even harder. Your race will have no chance."

"Once he has been awakened, the Sacred One will end us out to the corners of the Earth to ravage it as we please." The first fiend said. "The Shadow Games will be released once more, and we will take our rightful place over your pathetic human race!"

"Yes, it will be great… we shall finally be free from this place." The second fiend said. "I wonder what it will be like to be able to challenge these pathetic humans to Shadow Games whenever we want to… do you think the Sacred One will let us keep hostages?"

"Hopefully." The first one said. "But we'll be hard pressed to find nice new ways to torture the humans. And then we have to find the emotionally-fragile humans and force them to play. I've found that women crack very well under emotional strain…"

"What makes you say that?" Drake asked.

"I found this one woman who hated the weakest mental torture I put her through… can't remember the girl's name. It was fun until she beat me, but fortunately I was with a squad that managed to capture her and bring her here, so I got to have some fun… I love revenge."

"Yes, it's quite fun."

_I pity whoever that woman was… I have a bad feeling about who it might have been, but that can't be right… _Drake suddenly remembered something"I thought you guys were neutral." Drake said.

"We are until someone presents a way to free the Sacred One. Then we will do everything and anything to free him, for he is our leader and the most powerful amongst us. Soon, you will see…"

"I don't think so." Drake said. "As we speak, a highly-trained group is coming here to take down this operation. They're going to find you guys and kill every last one of you."

"Just keep telling yourself that, kid. We've already slain one of their number, and taken another's soul for the purpose of resurrecting the Sacred One."

_Someone _DIED?_ Oh no, I don't want to know who…_ Drake thought, and stared at the gate. He could feel the evil it exuded, like a burning heat. _This could take a while, _He thought.

The voice in his head returned from its long silence. _Don't worry, it will all be okay._

_How do you know?_

_I can't tell you yet, but we will tell you once we meet again. I will tell you that you will see almost everyone once again._

_What does that mean?_

_Yet another thing I cannot tell you. But don't worry, you will know soon…_ And so the voice left Drake to wait before the gate, hoping that the voice knew what it was talking about.


	19. Dead

Chapter 19- Dead

Keith felt the first shot hit him in the leg and knew he was a goner then and there. Without a strong leg to move on, he had no chance of finding cover fast enough to avoid all of the fire. And then he felt the fiend's shots rip across his body and everything went dark.

Then light came streaming back. Keith felt like he was moving upwards, toward a huge golden cloud. Beams of light were being thrown from it and Keith felt a sudden urge to shield himself from the light. Then he felt something attach to his arms and legs and stop his movement. He tried to shout, but when he opened his mouth no sound came out.

_What's going on?_ Keith thought. _Why can't I talk?_ He was shocked to realize that his thoughts were echoing in the air around him.

_You're coming back with us._ Came a voice.

Keith felt a massive presence around him. _Who are you all?!?_ He thought. _And what do you want with me?!?_

_You're coming back to life with us. We are the ones who have been sent back to live by the DIVINE ONE in order to defeat the fiend's monster-behind-the-sixth-gate. _The voice said. Keith realized that it wasn't just one voice, but a crazy mix of hundreds, perhaps a thousand voices.

_The divine one? What are you talking about?_ Keith asked.

_The DIVINE ONE is the most powerful being in the Universe, despite anything the Lord of Hell might say about himself and the monster-behind-the-sixth-gate being more powerful. The DIVINE ONE has power over life and death, and as such, he is sending us back in order to quell this threat._

_Why doesn't he just go down and kill them all?_

_Because there is no need for him to. We will go back, and we will fight them all to the death._

_No thanks. I've fought the good fight, and I've died doing it. One more soldier reporting, sir, I've served my time in Hell._

The voices laughed and pulled down on Keith so that he was drawn farther away from the golden cloud. _That was a good poem,_ they admitted. _But it doesn't matter. Even if you manage to get away from us, the DIVINE ONE will send you back. Besides, don't you want to see your friends again? You had such great potential. Don't you want it all back?_

Keith considered this. True, he had been considered the intellectual pinnacle of his class, and his dueling was getting better. If he could have it all back… who knew what he could do with it. But he still had his doubts… he didn't want to risk getting killed again. It had been so painful… he didn't want to have to experience it again.

Keith felt a pressure on his shoulder. _Don't worry, you won't die again._ A single voice said.

_You sound familiar…_ Keith said. _Who are you?_

_You'll find out when we get back._ The familiar presence moved back into the cloud of presences surrounding Keith. He was pulled even farther from the gold cloud.

_I'm not sure I want to do this!_ Keith said.

Keith felt a wave of heat pass over him. The spirits seemed to be really annoyed. _You don't want to take away a reason for your friends to grieve?_

_Well, uh…_

_And what about your family? Your mother? Your father? Your sister, Emily?_

_Emily…_ That struck a soft spot. Keith had always loved on his younger sister, almost to the point of it being an obsession. And for her to lose him… he didn't want it to happen. And after all, he had to be around to help Flynn keep Drake in line so that he didn't go running after Julie and get himself killed.

_Thinking of which, I wonder what's happened to Drake._

_He has been captured by the enemy, and will be summarily executed if we do nothing._

_What are we waiting for then?!? _Keith said. _I don't want them to have to experience death like I have!_

_We are waiting for you to stop debating and get with the program!_

_Oh, yeah. Uh… how do we get back?_

_Normally, you would be forced to ascend into the cloud up there, but because the DIVINE ONE has permitted us to return, then we are able to simply descend on our own will._

_Okay…_ Keith focused on descending. The spirits released their hold on him and he started to descend. He could feel the spirits swirling around him, descending at a slightly faster rate than he was. As they descended, they seemed to gain a visible form and merge into one being. Soon it had distinguished features and form. It looked up at Keith.

Keith found that he could suddenly speak. "So it was you."

"Of course." Said the being. "Who else did you think it would be? An angel of some kind? Ha, that would be funny. I'm not worth as much as one of them, but I'm going to save this rock if it's the last thing I do."

Keith nodded. He had the same sentiment. He no longer cared about dying again. He was a man on a mission. Nothing was going to stop him from completing it. And nothing was going to do his friends harm any longer. He would make sure of it.


	20. A Heavy Darkness

Chapter 20- A Heavy Darkness

Flynn stopped quickly and turned to see Brooklyn leaning over to pick up Helen's body. "Leave it!" Flynn shouted. "You'll just be a slower target if you're carrying it!"

"But what if the fiends come back for her?!?" Brooklyn shouted back.

"It doesn't matter!" Flynn said. "Carrying her we're too slow to catch up to Julie's soul. We've lost enough time as it is. We can't afford to weight ourselves down with something that's of no use to us anyhow!"

"We can't just leave a body behind!" MacArthur said. "It defies all military protocol, and I won't stand for it!"

"Look." Flynn said. "The fiends are gone. We're far behind them as it is. We're lacking manpower with the last three casualties. And now you want us to burden ourselves with a corpse? That'll kill any chance we ever had of succeeding! Besides, if we don't catch up to them it won't matter anyway! She'll be possessed whether we bring her down or not!"

"He's got a point…" Brooklyn said. MacArthur looked a little irked but moved in anyway. Yugi was behind them.

"At this point, what does Yugi do for us?" Flynn asked. Yugi picked up Helen's discarded rifle and a few clips.

"I don't like this, but I'll do it anyway." Yugi said.

Flynn nodded. "Good. Now let's MOVE!" He turned and ran farther down the passage in the third level of the realm. Apparently while the three passage hallway was the beginning of the third level, but they had never noticed the transfer because it was already so dark. Now the darkness was even thicker, and the candles were doing little to help. Flynn felt a little pressure on his chest.

The third level was completely deserted.

"Where are all the beasts?" MacArthur said.

"They're probably all in the very bowels of the Shadow Realm, waiting to perform the ritual that will release the monster behind the sixth gate." Brooklyn said.

"Why do they all need to be down there?" Flynn asked.

"They probably want to be present for the re-awakening of their leader."

"I see what you mean." MacArthur said. "At least it makes this easier."

"Let's just hope we don't have to get too close to that army." Yugi said. "That will not be easy."

Flynn nodded. "There's no way we can take that many fiends at one time."

Everyone murmured their agreement and they continued on. They arrived at the gate to the fourth level in a very short time.

"Ready?" Flynn said. Everyone nodded and stepped through.

Everything went pitch-black instantly. The only light was the flickering candle, and it soon went out. Flynn felt pressure on his neck and chest.

"What… is this?" He gasped. It was getting hard to breath and speak.

"Don't… know." Brooklyn said. "The… air… is thick… but there's no… humidity."

Flynn took a step forward and felt suddenly light-headed. _This isn't good._ He thought. Suddenly the force on his neck increased. It felt like something had grabbed hold of his neck and wouldn't let go. Flynn tried to shout for the others to help him but he couldn't because something covered his mouth. He reached up to pull whatever it was off of his neck but there was nothing there.

_What's going on?!? _Flynn thought, panicking. _What's strangling me?!?_ He heard someone fall to the floor. _Oh no…_ He felt like the world was spinning, even though he couldn't see it. His legs were weak. Flynn fell to the ground, struggling to breath and survive.

Time wore on at a snail's pace. Flynn heard the other two fall over, gasping for breath as the sinister force strangled them. Meanwhile, he was trying to free himself from the stranglehold.

_It can't end like this!_ He thought desperately. _I can't die yet! I still need to save the world… damn it… fading… can't… think clearly… goodbye, world… _

Just as Flynn closed his eyes and felt like he was about to die, a light appeared near him, and he could suddenly breath again. _What's that…?_ He thought, and looked toward the light.

Three transparent figures, cloaked in black, were standing in a circle in between each of them. They seemed to be casting a mysterious light out that pushed the darkness back. Each looked almost exactly the same, except that the light seemed to be coming mostly from the one closest to Flynn. They looked familiar, but because each had its face covered Flynn couldn't tell who it was.

Something moved in between the black-cloaked figures. Flynn saw human features, but his back was turned. He set something down and turned and then looked Flynn in the eyes.

And then suddenly he was gone. Flynn was dumbfounded. He could've sworn that the human figure in the middle was Keith, but Keith was dead. What was he doing down there? And what was he doing…

"Hey, what happened?" Brooklyn asked. "I thought we were all dead for sure…"

Flynn didn't respond. He was looking at the thing that Keith had set down. It was a torch that was burning a bright purple. It seemed to cut through the darkness with ease. "What is this?" He said.

"A very, very powerful torch." Yugi said. "This darkness is thick… apparently it was strangling us all. This is getting treacherous…"

"Yeah." Brooklyn said. "But what was that? You know, with all the light and stuff? And the crazy figures? They seemed too familiar."

"Yes." MacArthur said. "I felt it too…"

Flynn picked up the torch. "Enough about that now. Whatever it was has provided us with a method to protect ourselves from the darkness. We should be able to get to fifth level without too big a problem."

"Let me catch my breath first!" Brooklyn said. "That was scary."

"We can't afford to waste time!" Flynn said.

"He's right." MacArthur said. "Speed is of the essence now. We've lost even more time with that incident, and we're falling behind."

"Okay, fine." Brooklyn said. "Let's go save the world or something."

"Let's see…" Flynn held the torch up. Fourtunatly, there was only one passageway. "That way!" Holding the torch high, Flynn walked down the passageway, the other three in his wake.


	21. LastDitch Effort

Chapter 21- Last-Ditch Effort

As they walked deeper into the fourth level, the darkness continued to attempt to get at them, only to be deflected by the power of the torch.

"So…" MacArthur said. "What's our plan?"

"We usually don't have one." Brooklyn said.

"He's right for once." Flynn said. "We charge in, kill everything, and take back Julie's soul. There's no room or time for tactics here, they have us so badly outnumbered that it doesn't matter what kind of tactics we employ against them anyway. We'd need about five rockets launchers with about five rockets to make a dent in them with a surgical strike. But we don't have that kind of stuff."

"I have a flamethrower." MacArthur said. "But it's not really a long range weapon. And it's probably going to hurt us more than them with the backfire."

"Does anyone still have grenades?" Flynn said. "I lost the rest of mine in the chaos somewhere back near the surface."

"I never took any." Yugi said.

"Fresh out." Brooklyn said.

"Didn't bring any." MacArthur said. "I have to admit, I didn't expect this to be as hard as it has turned out to be."

"Okay…" Flynn said. "I have a long-range rifle, as does MacArthur, but I doubt we'll be able to find a point from which they are useful."

"There are very few ledges at this point in the shadow realm." Brooklyn said. "From here on out, it's all curved halls. There's no way we'll get a hall long enough to make use of something that's only effective at range."

"That's what I thought." Flynn said. "So, yeah, no plan. We go in and shoot everything we can, and if we die, we die. This is a last-ditch sort of thing. If we don't mount something like this, the world is going to end up destroyed. If we do something and succeed, then the world is saved. If we do something and fail, then we won't be around for the consequences. If we do nothing, then we have a 0 in 1 chance of saving the world. Doing something results in 1 in 2 chance of victory… and that's still not that good."

"I would say that our chance of surviving this is much less than that." MacArthur said. "We have about as good odds for winning this as the Texans did at the Alamo. Stupid battle, that was. It's not like we're Spartans, with all the power that entails."

"That would be useful." Brooklyn said.

Flynn raised the torch in front of him. There was another gate in front of them, this one more ornate than the last one. "This is it. The gate to the fifth level. We pass through this, there's no turning back. Any last words from anyone?"

"I make it a habit to never say last words." MacArthur said. "Army man's superstition. If I say something that I believe to be my last words, then they probably will be."

"I would like to say that it's been nice knowing you three." Brooklyn said. "Granted, we've had our disputes, but it's never been too bad, even when we were being attacked by fiends."

Yugi remained silent, and Flynn nodded. "It's time to go. Anyone want to back down?"

"No." said the other three.

"We go down, we go down together." Brooklyn said. "There's no point backing out now."

Flynn turned and stepped through the gate.

----------------------------------------------------

The fiends were lining them up in front of the gate now. Drake was near the back of the line, with only one person behind him, a bloodied woman who Drake could only assume was the woman the fiend had spoken of earlier. She had been wearing a somewhat snug fighting white shirt and pants, not tight, but snug enough that it wouldn't get in the way of free movement while still allowing some room for flexibility; her clothes no longer white due to the fact that it was now stained red from all of the blood the fiends had spilled from her body. She was hung limply from a wooden rack on wheels, and she seemed to lack the energy to hold any part of her body up.

_I feel sorry for her…_ Drake thought, looking at her. _She reminds me of Matt, when he was strapped to that wall after he got caught… I wonder… is there a reason for this order? Those fiends called me a powerful one, what if they're sacrificing us to the monster in order of the weakest to the strongest? Does that mean… she's stronger than I am?_

_A fair deduction. _Said the voice in Drake's head. _And a correct one. If the souls of the ones the fiends have gathered are sacrificed in this order, then the monster's strength will be even greater than if they were sacrificed in any other order. So, yes, she is stronger than you are._

The woman stirred and tried to lift her head, but failed miserably. Drake felt a sudden impulse to move closer to her, and, since he was going to die anyway, decided that he might as well die trying to make another feel better before her death. So he took a discreet step backwards toward the woman, so that the fiends couldn't see it.

"Hello." He said. The woman groaned and tried to lift her head again. This time she managed to move it enough so that her eyes could meet Drake's.

"Drake… is that you?" She asked. Drake was surprised that she knew his name.

"Who… how do you know who I am? I don't recognize you…"

"It's… me, Drake. Ashley…"

"What happened?" Drake lifted her head up between both his hands (the fiends had untied his earlier, probably assuming that even he wouldn't try to escape). There were long scars on the sides of her face. "What did they do to you?"

"I… was kind of mad that Brooklyn wouldn't let me help… so after you left, I did too… I got caught up in a duel soon after leaving, and I won, but then the fiend I was dueling had an army with him, and they captured me… they brought me down here, and found that I had similar power to Brooklyn and Matt…"

"You're as strong as those two?"

"Stronger than Brooklyn, weaker than Matt… or at least, that's what Matt always used to say." A tear ran down the side of her mangled face. "I'm sorry… for getting myself killed…"

"We're not dead yet!" Drake said, determined to make her feel better.

"How… will we get out of this?" She asked.

"I… don't know. But I know we will. What did they do to you?"

"They whipped me… with…" Her eyes slowly shut.

"No! Stay with me… please… at least to the end."

Ashley slowly opened her eyes. "I'll… try…"

"What have they done to you? I swear, if I get out of here, I'll kill them for every lash of that whip." _What am I talking about? I barely know her, and I want to take revenge on her behalf? I must be really pissed off at these fiends._

"It wasn't exactly a whip…"

"What was it?"

"Cat-of-nine-tails."

"A WHAT?"

"It's…a… ah…" She closed her eyes and looked away, as if the memory was too painful. "…I… don't want to think about it…"

Drake turned away. Looking at the mangled woman was getting painful.

--------------------------------------------

The darkness again grew heavier as they went deeper, but the torch was still strong enough to hold off the black demon.

"Almost there." Flynn said. "I can feel it."

"There's an evil presence everywhere." Yugi said. "Every monster in the shadow realm must be down here."

"That makes our job so much fun." MacArthur said. "How is this going to work?"

"I don't know, but it'll work." Flynn said. The voice in his head was talking to him again.

_It will work, but not the way you think it might._

_What do you mean?_

_You'll see. But you will live to see the end of this._

_How can you know?_ But the voice had fallen silent. _What about the others? _Still no answer from the voice in his head. Flynn sighed and continued on.

"What is it, Flynn?" MacArthur said. "You seem irritated."

"Just a little." Flynn said. "I can't believe I talked myself into doing this. And then there's this voice in my head that tells me things and leaves stuff hanging."

"Are you sure you're perfectly sane?"

"I used to be. Now I'm not so sure. This is foolishness, and we're walking right into it. I'll bet you that they have a trap set by now that's sure to kill us all."

"If… when we live through this, I would recommend that you join the military. You're a great leader, you could do a whole lot with it."

"I know. I went to a marine training camp for a while, found dueling soon after coming in, and left to pursue this. A lot of good it did me, eh?"

"It's not like it would be any different if you had gone into the marines." MacArthur pointed out. "Even if you don't go to the Academy, chances are that the fiends still would have attacked. And then this group would have been without a good leader. And you probably would have been killed in the initial attack.

Flynn thought about this. MacArthur was probably right. But then again, there was a lot of other variables to consider. "That may be… that may be."

--------------------------------------------

The fiends were wheeling in a large, covered contraption toward the front of the line now.

_Probably what they're going to sacrifice us with,_ Drake thought grimly. _I wonder what they are…_

"They're coming closer!" said an intelligent fiend near the entrance of the large chamber. "We should begin the sacrifices NOW!"

"Don't they need Julie's soul first?" Drake asked Ashley. She was still in terrible condition, barely able to move, but she didn't seem too close to death.

"Her soul… is to be the last sacrificed. It is the one that will break the seal… the first hundred or so just grant power… it looks like they have quite a few captives… if this goes through, they will truly have control of the planet for eternity…"

"Flynn and the others will do something." Drake said, hoping he sounded confident. Ashley smiled weakly.

"I wish they could… but at this point, against these odds… not even Matt at his peak could defeat them all… well, maybe he could… but there are too many people he wouldn't want to harm."

"Begin the sacrifices!" shouted a brilliant fiend from the front of the column. Two of the large fiends grabbed the edges of the covering on the machine and pulled it off. Underneath was the largest, most hideous guillotine that Drake had ever seen. It was made out of the same red material that the gate had in it, and the blade was made out of obsidian. Every flat part of the death machine was covered in spikes.

"This… isn't good." Drake said. He looked up at the front of the line. The youngest captives were there, mere children who, Drake assumed, the fiends decided had the least power. The first one in line couldn't be any older than six. The fiends were now dragging him toward the guillotine. Drake looked away, but he was still disgusted by the _thud _as the blade came down. Ashley threw up.

"That's… horrible." She said weakly. "How can they…?"

"I… don't know." Drake said, and looked away from her. The fiends were pulling the blade up again and dragging another child toward the guillotine. As they rigged it up again and prepared to drop the blade again, Drake looked away.

_This is sickening… _He thought. _Why would they…? How can they…? Are they just going to do this until no one is left? I can see why Ashley feels so bad… thinking of which, how did she end up with someone like Matt? He's rather sadistic, cruel, and emotionless, and yet… she's completely different. She's kind, caring, and emotional. How does stuff like that work?_

_Hahahaha…_ laughed the voice in his head. _You've got death staring you in the face, and you think about how two completely different people can enjoy each other's company? That's kind of amusing._

_Well, it's reasonable. _Drake said. _Look at her, then think about him!_

_I know, but it's still kind of funny._

The blade dropped again. A tear leaked from the corner of Ashley's eye. "Drake… are you okay?"

"Yeah… yeah I am. But you should be more concerned about yourself. You're in terrible shape, and you're going to die if something doesn't change."

Ashley actually smiled a little. "You're going to die too. And I'm not afraid of dying… at least I can see Matt again…"

"You really liked him, didn't you? Why?"

"I… don't know. I… can't explain it… I used to hate him. His coldness, his cruelty, his bluntness… but then… I saw this other side of him. His kindness… his sensitivity… and his willingness to protect others. It made me change my opinion of him. Many people hate him because of that… but they don't know him. They really don't. You've probably seen that side of him sometimes… it leaks through in crisis, and that's always when a person's true character shines through…"

Drake thought about this. It was true, whenever there was a huge problem that there seemed to be no solution for, Matt always pulled something out and did something incredibly stupid and heroic to try and get them all through it. Despite all those times he put them at risk… despite all the pain he had put them through… he always tried to get them out as best he could, even to the point of his own death.

The blade of the guillotine came down again as the fiends continued the executions. The line was long, there had to be at least a thousand people that the fiends had captured for this. The two big ones that had brought in the first guillotine had brought in a second and were wheeling in a third. The first was already stained with enough blood to turn the black blade red, and the second was rapidly progressing there. The speed and efficiency with which the fiends were killing was disturbing- they had to have gone through at least fifty people. The evil that the gate exuded was getting thicker. Soon, whatever was behind it would be released to wreak its destruction on the world.

A large mass of fiends appeared at the opening that lead out of the chamber. The one at the front was bearing a blue sphere in his right hand and smiling evilly.

"Here it is." He said. "Are we ready?"

---------------------------------------------

"There it is." Brooklyn said, looking around a corner. "That's the sixth gate."

Flynn peered around with Brooklyn. There was a huge line of humans, surrounded by every fiend Flynn could possibly imagine, leading up to it. Four guillotines were at work next to the gate, and the line was getting shorter the whole time. "Looks like a party."

"This is no time for jokes." MacArthur said. "This is about the fate of the world."

"I suppose." Flynn said. "Ready?"

"For what? Death?" Brooklyn said. "Sure, why not."

Flynn checked his gun one last time, probably the last time he would ever check anything again. "Let's go." He spun around the corner and opened fire on the closest cluster of fiends.

----------------------------------------

Drake heard gunshots and instinctively fell to the ground, praying that nothing would hit him. The fiends turned to react to the threat with lightning speed, killing any of the prisoners who were in the way. Evidently they didn't care about increasing their Sacred One's power any more, they just wanted to free him.

The fiend bearing the blue sphere was moving past Drake, toward the gate. _No! If he gets there, it's all over!_ Drake jumped to his feet and tackled the fiend, sending the sphere all over the ground like a puddle of water. Drake flinched. _Sorry, Julie. That had to hurt._ He grabbed the fiend's rifle and used it to shoot its former owner. Then he scooped Julie's soul up off the ground and let it slid out of his hand into what he usually used to store his deck when it wasn't being put through such extensive use. Drake stood up and shot a fiend who was a little too close, then he turned and ran for the entryway.

_Sorry, Ashley, I can't help you right now. I have the world to save._ Drake thought, regretting that he couldn't do anything for her. He carved his way through the fiend horde with his stolen rifle, finally finding Flynn hammering away from a little alcove.

"You're alive!" Flynn shouted at him, attaching a new clip to his rifle. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

"I thought you would have just left after I vanished!" Drake shouted. "Where is everyone?!?"

"I don't know! I lost track of them!"

"I have Julie's soul! We should get out of here!"

"What do you mean?"

"The gate can't be opened without it! If we escape now, we can do what we were sent to do and prevent the gate from being opened! At least for now…" Drake tossed away his rifle and took a new one from a fiend corpse. He shot a fiend as it came in closer, then turned to Flynn again. "Come on!" Drake shot a fiend that was in his way and ran for the entrance, where he could see Brooklyn and Yugi attempting to defend themselves.

"What about these people?!?" Flynn shouted after him.

"We can worry about them later!!!" Drake said, sliding in next to Brooklyn.

"You made it!" Brooklyn said. "But we may not…" Flynn fell in next to him. MacArthur was behind him.

"We've got Julie's soul, let's go!" Flynn shouted. "We can fix this problem later!"

"What are you talking about?!?" MacArthur said.

"Don't ask if you value your life! Just move it!" Yugi and Brooklyn turned to run, only to notice a huge group of fiends coming from the other way.

"We're trapped!" Yugi shouted. "They're everywhere!!!"

"Kill them and let's get out of here!" Flynn said, shooting one of the fiends. Drake ran forward, shooting all the way. His rifle clicked empty and he threw it away, picking up a shotgun a dead fiend had discarded. He aimed and pulled the trigger, only to have the kick throw him flat on his backside.

"Ow!" Drake shouted. _How do people stay standing up when they fire these things?!? How did Matt stay standing with a double barreled one?!?_ Drake got up and shoved the barrel of the gun down a fiend's throat and pulled the trigger, leaving the fiend's insides all over the ground and leaving Drake a nice new AK-74SU. A fiend hit Drake across the shoulder with a single shot, spinning Drake around and causing him to lose his idea of what was going on.

_Crap…_ Drake thought, gripping his bleeding shoulder. _We're completely outnumbered and outgunned! We're not going to make it!_ He jumped up and began to fire on the fiends again, only to have the fiends suddenly stop moving and raise their weapons.

"Drake, wait a minute…" Flynn said as Drake attempted to draw a bead on a fiend who didn't seem to care.

"What are they doing?" Brooklyn said. The most intelligent-looking fiend in the chamber shouted to them.

"Worthy adversaries! You are completely outnumbered and surrounded. You have no chance of making it out of here alive at your current strength. Surrender to us, and we will allow you to walk free!"

"Ha! Like you would allow us to simply leave here without extracting some kind of vengeance on us." Flynn said.

"That is what they always say in these kind of situations." The fiend said. "But I am in earnest. You shall be spared… and allowed to live out rest of your days in this place, under the constant surveillance at level 1. You will remain alive… the question is will you enjoy it… keh keh keh."

"Hm…" Flynn looked like he was in deep thought. "Surveillance… armed surveillance?"

"Of course, do you think we would put nothing on you?"

Flynn continued to consider his options and the fiend laughed. "Hurry up before I just have you killed so we can be done with it!"

"Let's see…" Flynn scratched his chin. "Here's my answer." He brought his rifle around with one hand and pulled the trigger. A fiend's head exploded. "No."

The leader smiled evilly. "Very well then, you shall die." He gestured for the fiends to close in, and they did with remarkable speed. Within seconds each of them was caught in the vice grip of at least three beasts. "Now! Take the girl's soul from that boy!"

One of the fiends came closer to Drake, one of its arms reaching out greedily. Drake tried to pull back and get away, only to have the other fiends that were right behind him seize his arms and legs and push him forward. The first fiend reached his arm forward, toward Drake's pocket where he had placed Julie's soul.

_It's over…_ Drake thought. _We failed._ He hung his head as he watched the fiend's hand enter his pocket.

And then, suddenly, the fiend jerked his arm back, clutching at his stomach and chest. Drake stood dumbfounded. _I didn't do anything! _The fiend fell over and burned up.

"What's wrong?!?" shouted the fiend from bellow. "Take the Accursed One's soul and let us control the world!" The fiend who had grabbed Drake from behind shot his arm out toward Drake's pocket. As his hand got close, it disintegrated. There was no explaining it. Any part of the fiend that went past a certain point vanished. It was as if Drake was surrounded by a force field that, if something attempted to penetrate it, burned off the intruding force.

"Kill them, then!" The fiend shouted. "Cover the floor in ever last drop of their blood!" The fiends around them raised their rifles to fire. And then suddenly each went through the same sequence as the first fiend- clutch at the stomach, clutch at their chest, and fall over and burn up. No one did anything due to shock.

A black shape fell to the ground and stood up straight. It wasn't exactly human- it looked like there were human body parts that were sticking out of it where they shouldn't be. The parts seemed to melt into the main body as if they were all part of a wax statue and the excessive parts were being melted to form more wax for the main statue.

A fiend ran at the thing. The figure didn't move- and then suddenly, a full human torso shot out of its side and tore off the fiend's head with its arms. The fiend fell to the ground, clearly dead. The main figure absorbed the torso, as if it had never been there. There was no more motion for a full five seconds.

_What… what is that… thing?!?_ Drake thought. _It can't be human! It's like some kind of disturbing mutant that can generate human body parts out of its body!_

The monster slowly raised its arms out in front of it. The loose sleeves it was wearing slid up its arms, as if in preparation for something. At least the arms underneath them were human-looking- if a little scarred and bloody. And the monster spoke- in a voice so terrible, so loud, and so utterly bizarre that Drake fell to the ground. And it had only spoken three words.

"You're all dead." It said. Full human bodies began to emerge from the monster's arms and fly at the fiends, passing through them. They weren't exactly humans- they looked like ghosts in various shades of gray- from the purest white to the darkest storm black. Every fiend that was hit by one of these things was struck with the fate of the first fiend.

This seemed to shock every fiend in the room into moving. The ones with rifles took aim at the monster. Most of them died before they could get a shot off- slain by the flying ghosts. The ones who did get their shots off were dead on, but the bullets never reached the monster. Every time a bullet got close to the monster, a gray-ish wall that seemed to be made up of human faces seeped out from under the monster's cloak and absorbed the shots, apparently taking no damage itself.

The fiends that had cut Drake and the others off earlier snapped out of their shock and aimed at the group with Julie's soul. None of them got a shot off either. Another figure, this one much more human looking than the first, fell from the ceiling, leveled an RPK SAW on the army that was standing there, and devastated them. Not a monster was left standing. It was all over, and Drake, Flynn, MacArthur, Brooklyn, and Yugi, hadn't fired a shot. They had been saved by the two mysterious figures.

The second figured turned to them and smiled. Flynn's jaw dropped.

"You're DEAD!!!" He shouted.

"Ow! No need to yell that loud…" Keith said. "Where I came from, it isn't all that loud, so I can't stand loud noises!" There was a red scar mark on his forehead.

"Wait- what?" Drake said.

"Keith was killed earlier! He should be dead!" MacArthur said, staring in disbelief. "I saw him dead! He was bleeding from that scar on his head."

"This defies all logic…" Brooklyn said. "But then…" He turned and looked at the monster who was standing amongst the fiend bodies littered everywhere. Everyone turned to stare at the figure now. It still had its arms out, waiting for all of the ghost-things to return to their place in its body.

The monster must have felt their gazes, because it lowered it arms and turned to look at them. Drake couldn't see its face because it wore a deep hood that covered its entire face, as well as a mask over its nose and mouth (or, at least, where the nose and mouth would have been on a normal human).

The monster raised one hand to its face and removed the mask. Then it slowly reached up to the hood and pulled it off. Drake gaped.

"Who's ready to kick some ass?" Matt said.


	22. Grand Return

Chapter 22- Grand Return

Everyone gaped at Matt now. He looked essentially the same as he had when they had last seen him, down to every last wound. He was wearing that same black cloak that covered his black, snug-fitting garment (_same as Ashley's_, Drake thought, _except black and made for guys_) and he had the pouch on his right back hip. Strangly, the huge gaping hole in his side that had been the cause of his death was still visible, parts of his innards visible but not hanging out. His visible lung wasn't moving. His shadow eye was uncovered and strangely red. He wasn't quite solid, his silhouette seemed… fuzzy.

"How did you…" started Flynn, still in shock. "…you know, come back to life? You said that you wouldn't be able to come back from that wound. And you still have it! What's up with that?"

Matt smiled ruefully. "Alas, I am not truly alive. I am what you would call a ghost- albeit with quite a bit more substance. It's a result of my intense will, even after death, you're still around. You go up to meet the Divine One. I like to call him the Big Guy Upstairs."

"And what does he have to do with this?" Drake asked. "I heard the fiends mention his name…"

"He is the most powerful being in the Universe, despite anything that the fiends say about the Lord of Hell or the monster back there." Matt gestured at the sixth gate. "But back to my point. My will for justice on the fiends and their leader and also my drive for vengeance were intense. So the Big Guy sent me back to accomplish this, defeating the fiends once and for all. Unfortunately, I can only remain here for as long as the fiends are still free."

"So… after this is all over, you'll be gone? Forever?" Drake asked.

Matt inclined his head. "Yes. But…" He raised his head. "Until then, I will do everything within my power to defeat these fiends. And because I'm not really alive, I no longer have a body to limit my power. So that means-"

"You'll be able to unleash your maximum power?" Flynn asked.

"Yes."

"This is going to be really scary." Brooklyn said. "He's got enough power to level entire cities, destroy entire armies without batting an eye. He can kill tanks with his bare hands."

"That's incredible… when did you learn that one, soldier?" MacArthur asked.

"About two years after I left, sir." Matt said.

_Matt addressing someone as "sir?"_ Drake thought. _That's new. Oh well, old habits die hard I guess… he was under MacArthur's command, after all, if I remember correctly…_

"You do, Drake." Matt said, smiling in a funny way.

"Hey! How'd you do that?" Drake asked.

"Well, I am present in your mind at the moment… sort of. I've been helping you a little already, thought it was a regrettably small amount of help. It didn't protect Keith or Helen… I am sorry. I have been present in your minds in a way. Come out." Matt gestured at Flynn and Drake.

Drake felt something leave his mind, as if there was suddenly less in his head. A transparent white man moved out from him and floated to hover next to Matt. A similar figure, albeit a woman, left Flynn. Drake was dumbfounded.

"I've been harboring someone else's soul?" Drake asked. "And it wasn't yours? I could have sworn…"

"No, these are two of the spirits of the people I killed in Egypt. They realize how much I regret it and that I didn't mean it in anyway, and are amongst the few who forgave me of my actions. This is Isis…" He gestured at the woman. "…and this is Akhom."

"So he was the one who was telling me what to do?" Drake asked. "How were you helping, then?"

"I sent him the message and he relayed it to you. I sent one of the more spiteful ones to Helen, but he let up eventually, just like I intended him to. Oh, by the way, we should retrieve her soul… I noticed that Drake already retrieved Julie's?" Matt looked at him.

"Yeah, and I'm not letting go of it." Drake said, placing his hand over the pocket that contained said soul. Matt laughed a little.

"Of course not." He said.

"Drake, we all know you like her, so you might as well admit it." Flynn said.

"I was going to say if you hadn't noticed by now, you were stupid." Drake said. "Okay, I admit I have a soft spot for her… I sure hope she makes it out of this thing so she knows…"

"I am certain she already does." Yugi said. "I heard about all those times you got angry at Matt for putting her in danger."

"Yeah… that might have been unjustified." Drake admitted. Matt raised a hand to stop him.

"It was justified. Believe me. But enough idle talk. We must go." He gestured to the two spirits standing next to him, as if telling them to come closer. Both floated sideways toward Matt, came in contact with him, and then were seemingly sucked into Matt's body. Before Drake could raise the question of what just happened, Matt turned and began to flip fiend bodies over.

"What are you looking for, soldier?" MacArthur asked.

"Helen's soul, sir." Matt said. "I want to bring her back to help. Granted, I have power, but it's still best to be in a large group around here. Though we sort of already are, with me here…"

"What do you mean by that?" Drake asked.

"We should start calling you, 'The Inquisitive One.'" Matt said, flipping over another fiend. "Because all you do is ask questions, it seems. What I mean is…" He flipped over another fiend and saw the tell-tall blue glow of someone's soul. "…never mind, remind me to explain later." He pulled the fiend's arms apart and extracted the soul from in between them. His face softened as he held it in his hand.

_That's an unusual look on Matt, _Drake thought. _What's he thinking?_

"What is it?" Flynn asked.

"She's in a lot of pain." Matt said quietly. "She has been severely injured, and her soul is somewhat torn." He stretched out his right arm and balanced Helen's soul on the back of his hand. "Come hither, child." He whispered, and the blue sphere was sucked into the back of his hand.

"What did you do with it?" Drake said.

"She is now a temporary part of me. It will undoubtedly be more comfortable and conducive to healing than for her to be exposed."

"You're calling her 'child'?" Flynn asked. "You're not that old."

"Dying makes you feel older, and she was younger than me to begin with. She's only in her early twenties, and I'm almost thirty."

"That's not a big age difference." Brooklyn said. "And stop being so kindly! It's creeping me out."

"Yeah, what's with you now?" Flynn said. "You never acted like this before."

"Dying changes a person." Matt said. "Come on, did you honestly think I would be the same after being killed? People change for less. We've got what we came for, now let's go!"

Suddenly Drake remembered. "Wait! There's someone here we have to get out if she's still alive!"

"What?" Matt said, spinning around as Drake ran past him. Realization dawned on his face. "She came down here?!? OH, NO!" He moved past Drake at such an incredible speed that it knocked Drake to the floor. Matt began to sift through the bodies on the floor at incredible speed, muttering. "Dead, dead, dead… most of these people were killed sometime between when you showed up and when I showed up. Oh, no… I can't live with myself if…" His sentence died as he continued his frantic search.

"Now what?" Brooklyn asked.

"Ashley came down here…" Drake said. "Or more accurately, was captured and forced down here and tortured. I saw her, she's in horrible condition."

"Shouldn't we help look for her then?" MacArthur asked.

"No reason." Flynn said. "We'd just be in the way." He watched as Matt began to pick up bodies and throw them in excess of thirty feet to the side in his frantic search.

"Calm down soldier!" MacArthur shouted, but Matt ignored him. Finally, while in the motion of throwing aside yet another dead body, he stopped, the body still hanging from his hand.

"Oh God…" he said, releasing his hold. He dropped to his knees next to a prone form on the ground. "Oh, God no…" He pressed his transparent fingers up against her temple, checking for a pulse frantically.

"Is she alive?" Drake asked tentatively. Matt relaxed.

"Yes, thank God, she's alive… thank God… if she had died… I would have felt so bad… it would have been my fault…" And for only the second time since Drake had known him, Matt had tears in his eyes. He reached down, wrapped his arms around Ashley's limp but still living body, and held it tightly to him. His mouth was moving, but Drake couldn't hear what he was saying. He could see that it was the same two words over and over again.

For a while everyone was still. Then, Matt picked up Ashley's unconscious form, laid it gently over his shoulder. He raised his free hand to his face and wiped his eyes, then turned to them.

"Come on." He said. "Grab some ammunition and let's get out of here." Everyone scrambled to pick out some extra munitions while Matt moved slowly and carefully toward the entrance of the chamber. He seemed to be taking extra care that Ashley didn't get hurt any more.

Drake was the first done, and for a reason. He wanted to talk with Matt.

Matt was standing facing away from the carnage, gently laying Ashley's body up against the wall. After doing so, he crouched down next to her and surveyed her.

"I feel terrible…" he whispered, barely loud enough for Drake to hear him. "This shouldn't have happened to her…"

"What's up with you?" Drake asked from behind him. "Ever since you've come back, you've been a lot softer. Especially where Ashley is concerned. I really want to know why."

Matt stood and faced Drake for a moment. "First off, I died. Such an event- as will as being in the presence of the Big Guy Upstairs- has an incredible effect on a person."

Evil Matt appeared behind Matt. "In other words, the dumbfuck has gone soft."

"Get back." Matt said, and Evil Matt disappeared. He turned back to Ashley and crouched down next to her. "Secondly, she is one of the few people in the world who ever valued my existence. She is one of the few friends I had… even before I killed all those people, few ever accepted me… but she did. She would follow me anywhere… she was a ninja too, one of the premier medic ninja of her day. I felt terrible every time my exploits got her hurt… and now… she's almost dead because of it." He placed a hand on a wound on her left side and his hand began to glow. Ashley's wound began to heal, and as it did, a similar wound began to open in Matt's side. But as it did, Matt's wound healed as well.

"What…?" Drake began. Matt moved on to Ashley's next wound, and after that, the next. Each was the same as the next- Ashley's wound would close, a similar one on Matt would form, and then Matt's would close. He did this for every wound. Soon, Ashley looked fine. By then, everyone was standing around them watching Matt work.

"What was that?" Flynn asked.

"It's a technique that allows me to take other people's injuries on myself. Don't worry about me, I heal fast anyway." He stood up and faced them. "She should be waking up soon." Sure enough, Ashley stirred as he said this. Hey eyes opened a little. The first person she saw was Matt. She instantly jumped up and hugged him, her eyes closed. Matt didn't return the embrace.

"Hi, Matt. I guess I died… it's my fault. I wanted to help them… but I ended up getting caught. They used mind games on me… it was horrible. And then they whipped me… but I'm with you now."

"You are, but not where you think you are. Open your eyes. You are amongst friends." Matt said. Ashley opened her eyes, and looked at Drake. Hey eyes moved from Drake to Flynn, to Keith, to Brooklyn, to Yugi, and finally rested on MacArthur. She let go of Matt and stepped back from him, joy in her eyes.

"Yay! I'm alive! And I get to be with all you guys!" She said, then looked back at Matt. "And that means… you came back! You're alive!" She embraced him again, and this time he returned it. Drake could see the side of his mouth moving as he whispered in her ear. Her face saddened.

"Oh… I'm sorry… but… it's still good to see you." She said, and squeezed him tighter. "I was worried I wouldn't get to say goodbye."

"Well, now you will, but only if you survive this." He let go, and so did she. "But trust me, I'll do what I can so that you do." She nodded. Matt turned so that he could see everyone. "Everyone ready?" Everyone nodded. "Good, now let's go." And with that, he lead them down the hallway on the way out of the Shadow Realm.


	23. A Myth?

Chapter 23- A Myth?

"Hang on a minute." Flynn said. "Why do we want to get out of here?" Matt stopped, bringing the column to a halt.

"Because we need to figure out what to do next, we need to find Helen and revive her in the third level, and we need to revive Julie. We cannot plan here, and Helen and Julie are not here." Matt said. "We need to move as quickly as possible to ensure that we don't encounter any more… problems. I may have killed every fiend in the entire Shadow Realm back there, but they'll regenerate before long. It's not going to be easy getting out of here."

"Really?" Drake said. "Even with you around?"

"Don't give me too much credit." Matt warned. "I may be softer to you guys, but I'll still be as brutal as ever to the fiends. That may distract me from protecting you guys. Then again, Ashley can take care of that. Can't you?" He turned to her.

"I'll try." She said.

"Good."

"I don't know if I feel safe knowing that." Flynn said. "After all, she did get captured by the fiends in combat and if that's the case, it doesn't seem like she's all that strong."

Ashley crossed the distance between herself in Flynn- a space of about six feet- in an instant. Drake couldn't perceive the movement- it was as if she had just warped six feet. She was now standing next to him.

"Really?" She said. Flynn took a step away.

"You're quite fast." MacArthur said. "How on earth did you do that?"

"She's a ninja, just like I was." Matt said. "We're both really flippin' fast. Don't doubt her ability, I seem to remember she punched through a thirty-foot thick wall with a single shot. Wasn't it thirty?"

"Actually, I think it was twenty-eight feet of concrete." She said, moving back next to him at the same lightning speed. "But close enough!"

"Do the two feet actually make a huge difference?" Brooklyn asked.

"When it's concrete, yes." Ashley said. "If it was, say, plaster, maybe not. If it's steel, then definitely. I can only punch through 23 feet of steel, as opposed to 35 feet of concrete or 43 feet of plaster."

Yugi raised an eyebrow. "_Only_ 23 feet of steel?"

"Okay, it's a lot of steel. But it comes in handy!"

"That's outrageous! How are you that strong?" MacArthur said. "There's no man that strong, even the strongest of all the bodybuilders in the world! I've seen men pull buses and stuff like that, but punch through that much steel? You're strength isn't in the range of human, and it exceeds superhuman!"

"You see, we're _ninjas. _The fastest man in the world, the strongest man in the world, is almost nothing compared to even the weakest ninja." Matt said. "Well, maybe not in the strength department, but you get the idea. She and I are in the upper echelons of ninjas."

"That's pretty ridiculous, still." Keith said. "Not even remotely realistic seeming. If all ninja are that strong, why don't you compete in public competitions?"

"Because we're ninjas, we stay in the dark, remember?"

"Oh, yeah."

"We're wasting time debating their awesome-ness." Brooklyn said. "Besides, I have to live with it all the time. So let's go before-"

"HALT! I know who you are, and you're not going anywhere!" came a fiend's voice.

Brooklyn looked exasperated. "-before that happens." A brilliant fiend stepped around the corner.

"You killed us all! Now I must defeat you each, one by one. Any volunteers?" the fiend said.

"I'll volunteer for this madness." Matt said, stepping forward and activating his duel disk. The fiend looked peeved.

"I didn't actually want a volunteer…"

"Then don't ask for one!"

The fiend scowled and activated its duel disk arm. "Let's go, then, so I can steal your soul."

Matt chuckled. "If you want to steal my soul, you'll be here for a real long time."

"Let's duel!"

Matt (Reborn): 4000 

**Brilliant Fiend: 4000**

"Let's see here… I'll go first to celebrate my return to dueling." Matt said. He drew a card. "Good. This can do some damage, but not right now. So we'll keep it for later. First, though, I'll summon Soldier of Heaven (Heaven/Warrior/Effect, 1900/1900) in attack mode…" The being appeared, more glorious than anything Drake had ever seen. It had to be some kind of angel. "…and set a card facedown for back up. Let's see what you've got."

"That card… it isn't normal. Could it be… no, it can't be. No one has played the full run of it for over 3000 years…" The fiend drew a card. "One of those cards is no big deal. I can beat it."

"Then stop your blabbering and do it." Matt said, his arms folded. He looked completely unconcerned by anything the fiend might try.

_Did Matt get new cards? How? _Drake thought. _And why? It's not like he needed them… and why did the fiend get so nervous from it? It looks normal…_

"Okay then…" The fiend studied his hand. "I summon Gilasaurus (Earth/Dinosaur/Effect, 1400/400) in attack mode. I can treat this as a special summon as long as you are allowed to special summon a monster from your graveyard. But as you have no monsters, I'll treat it as a special summon because you can't summon from the graveyard. Next, I sacrifice my Gilasaurus to summon Dark Driceratops (Earth/Dinosaur/Effect, 2400/1500) in attack mode. And he's stronger than your monster! But since you have a facedown, I'll use Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it!"

"Hm. Oh well." Matt said. He didn't seem to care, which seemed to greatly annoy the fiend.

"Show me some fear! You're going to lose at this!"

"No."

"Grr… Dark Driceratops! Dice up his soldier!"

Matt (Reborn): 3500 

**Brilliant Fiend: 4000**

Matt didn't react at all to the Shadow Game. "Is something supposed to be happening to me?"

"Do you _want _something to happen to you?" Flynn said.

"No, but it kind of adds some fun to the game… a little flavor, some spice, some excitement! There's nothing more fun than dueling with your life on the line."

"What are you talking about?" Drake said. "I had to do that, and I hated it!"

"Well, I don't lose all that much, so I really don't worry about it. Actually, I quite enjoy it."

Drake shrugged. _He's insane! But in a good way. At least he's on our side._ "Whatever suites you."

"This does." Matt turned back to the duel. "Is that all you can muster?"

"No! I set a card and end my turn."

"Very well." Matt drew another card. "The facedown card you destroyed was The Floodgates of Heaven. While it's in the Graveyard, Floodgates allows me to draw an extra card once a turn, whenever I want to. So I'll take this opportunity to do so." He drew another card.

"Another of those cards… this could be bad for us… it could be the end…" The fiend muttered.

Matt smiled. "Time to test drive this. I play Divine Lightning. This spell card destroys one monster on the field- in this case, yours. Your Dark Driceratops is no more."

"Curse you… that was my only monster!"

"That's the general idea." Matt began to pull a card out of the center of his hand. "But just wait to see what I have in store for you. I activate the Eternal Beings spell card. With it active, at any time during my turn when I have a Heaven- attribute monster in my graveyard, I may special summon it to the field. So welcome back, Soldier of Heaven (Heaven/Warrior/Effect, 1900/1900). But he won't stay for long. I sacrifice him to summon the somewhat stronger Angelic Captain (Heaven/Warrior/Effect, 2400/2400) in attack mode."

"No! You do have that deck!"

"Yes, and I intend to use it. Go, Angelic Captain, attack his life points directly!"

Matt (Reborn): 3500 

**Brilliant Fiend: 1600**

"Grr…" the fiend said. "This is going to be very difficult…"

"I set another card and end my turn."

"Fine!" The fiend drew a card. "I'll destroy you, even if you do have the power of that deck! I summon my Gale Lizard (Water/Reptile/Effect, 1400/700) in attack mode, and then activate the spell card Ultra Evolution Pill! With this, I can sacrifice any Reptile-Type monster to special summon any Dinosaur-type monster! So I'll sacrifice my Gale Lizard to special summon the Black Tyranno (Earth/Dinosaur/Effect, 2600/1800) in attack mode! Now I have a monster that's even stronger than your monster! Go, Tyranno, attack the Angelic Captain!"

Matt (Reborn): 3300 

**Brilliant Fiend: 1600**

Matt seemed unfazed. "Is that all you can muster? Because that's pathetic."

"You're going to lose! How can you say that's pathetic?"

"Because that's not correct. Are you finished?"

"Yes, I am. And I am going to enjoy this."

"Probably not." Matt said. He drew a card. "I'm going to use the Floodgates' effect again to draw another card." He slipped another card out of his duel disk.

"Draw all the cards you want, it's not going to help!"

"Oh, it will. I think I'll end this game right now. I activate the Field Spell Card Eternal Paradise! This card grants all Heaven-Attribute monsters an extra 500 attack and defense points, as well as reducing the level of all Heaven monsters in my hand by 4, to a minimum level of 1."

"But that means you can summon level 8 monsters as if they were level 4! That's completely unfair!" The fiend said, his eyes bugging out.

"That IS kind of cheap." Drake admitted.

"But think of all of the Heaven attribute monsters in the entire game." Keith said. "There aren't all that many… the three God cards, and all the monsters that Matt has used thus far. The effect is great but there aren't enough cards to support it."

"That's true, and the three Egyptian Gods aren't even helped by it." Yugi said. "You are required to sacrifice three monsters by them, not by basic rules. That card does nothing for them, besides grant a small attack boost."

"Now, with this effect active, I can summon, as you said, a level 8 monster as if it were level 4- in other words, without tributes! So now I summon Archangel- Michael (Heaven/Warrior/Effect, 3700/2800) in attack mode! The archangel Michael is the strongest warrior amongst the Legions of Heaven. He is also the commander. His special ability allows me to special summon as many Heaven-attribute warriors from my hand as I want to and am able to!"

"No! But that would mean I lose!" The fiend said. "It can't be!"

"It is! Now, I'll special summon another Angelic Captain (Heaven/Warrior/Effect, 2400/2400) in attack mode! And since I don't need any more monsters to destroy you, I'll stop there, because more would just be overkill."

"Matt! There's no such thing as over-nuking!" Brooklyn said.

Matt laughed. "That's true, but this isn't nukes."

"Why is that funny?" MacArthur asked. "There's definitely a point where another nuke would be excessive."

"It's an inside joke." Ashley said.

"Ah."

"Now! Eternal Paradise gives all my Heaven monsters an extra 500 attack! Now the Captain has 2900 attack, and Michael has 4200!"

"NO!"

"Go, Angelic Captain! Attack and destroy the Black Tyranno!"

Matt (Reborn): 3300 

**Brilliant Fiend: 1300**

"Michael, attack him directly and finish the duel! Sword of Holy Flames!"

Matt (Reborn): 3300 

**Brilliant Fiend: 0**

The fiend exploded, as per usual. Matt flicked some hair out of his face. "Okay. Let's get moving again." He began to move farther down the hall, and the others followed.

"What was that deck?" Drake asked. "And why did you need to get a new one? I thought the other one was deadly enough, but this one… it's excessive."

"It's the legendary Heaven Deck." Matt said. "It's the most powerful deck in existence…"

"No kidding." MacArthur said.

"…and as such any card it contains is banned from official competition, despite the fact that most people don't think it exists. There is only one recorded instance of its use, and the manuscript is generally considered unreliable, because it also documents another legendary deck, the Hell deck."

"So there's a Heaven and a Hell deck?" Drake said. "Must've been an epic battle."

"Quite. Right now, I have no idea where the Hell deck is. It would be reasonable to assume that the Mastermind has set himself to finding it, because it's power is similar to the Heaven deck, albeit a little less because of one card contained in the Heaven deck. In any case, it would take an exceptional duelist to defeat either deck with a deck filled with mere mortal monsters. That means basically any deck besides the one that contains the other three heaven monsters- the Egyptian God cards." Matt nodded at Yugi. "Fortunately, we have two of the three."

"So if we find the mastermind, what you're saying is that you have to duel him for us to have any chance of winning?" Drake asked.

"No." Matt said. "It's not likely, but one of you could win against him, if you play your heart out. And that's assuming that he has the Hell deck."

"What's the one card that puts the Heaven deck over the Hell deck?" Flynn asked.

"A card that is unfairly powerful. It has a base attack and defense of infinity, and the effect- well, it has any effect it wants to have."

"That's outrageous!" Keith said. "If you summon it, you essentially win!"

"I told you that it was unfairly powerful. Of course, the Hell deck contains the Lord of Hell himself, who has a base attack of 80000, is unaffected by any effect he doesn't want to hurt him, and destroys and negates all monsters it fights with. Both are very difficult to summon, but it's almost impossible to win against them, obviously."

"I don't want to have to fight that deck." Drake said.

"Who would? But enough chitchat about that. We need to keep quiet so that we don't attract unwanted attention." Everyone fell silent as they continued through the realm.


	24. Secrets Revealed! The Mastermind is

Chapter 24- Secrets Revealed! The Mastermind's Identity

Matt lead them to the fourth level without much else getting in their way.

"Well, that's better." Matt said. "Not like earlier, when we had to fight to move a foot!"

"Yeah, but you have to admit that this is considerably less exciting." Flynn said.

"I'll take the lack of excitement for a little peace and quiet right now." Drake said. The constant combat was exhausting, and he wasn't exactly in great shape. The old wound on his leg was bothering him, as were the injuries he had received when William attacked him earlier that week, and walking was painful enough with having to perform evasive maneuvers.

_It's hard to believe that only a few days ago, I was worried about dropping out of Duel Academy._ Drake thought. _Now, we've got to fight hard to stay alive, and then try to save the world while we're at it. I hope that we can end this once and for all soon. I don't want these fiends getting out again._

Matt brought them to a halt near the gate to the fourth level.

"Why are we stopping?" Keith asked.

"I feel something… the gate's been tampered with." Matt said, running his hand along the frame. "I don't think we'll be able to use it."

"Why not?" MacArthur asked.

"Someone's put a trap on it… if we try to go through, we would likely be killed instantly."

"What are we going to do about it then?" Brooklyn asked. "You're being all mysterious again."

"Well, we can't use this gate unless we remove the trap, and trying to remove a trap here is like trying to hold a ball of fire in the palm of your hand. It's painful, and chances are you're going to lose that hand. Except here you are playing with your very life. As such, I will be the one to remove it."

"But you'll hurt yourself!" Ashley protested.

Matt laughed. "What more can they do to me? I'm already dead. Whatever they have can't harm me much more. Back away, please." Everyone stepped away from him, and he began to run his hands around the gate again, eventually gripping something that was attached to the underside of the gate. "This should be it…" He pulled, and the thing came off in his hand.

The inside of the gate turned a vivid red, temporarily blinding Drake. _What's happening?!?_ Drake thought. _Shouldn't this only affect Matt? And what's that god-awful noise? It sounds like thousands of screaming voices… _The light began to fade, and Drake could see again. Matt was standing next to the gate, holding a swirling blue sphere in his right hand and a small black stone in his left. There was a red spot on the ground next to him.

"What happened?" Yugi said. "I couldn't see a thing!"

"It wasn't a death trap… it was another mind game. Whoever tries to cross through the gate or removes the trap is put into an illusion." Matt said, tossing away the black box. "You see a large empty field with a varying number of bodies. The number of bodies depends on how many people there are that you count amongst your friends, as all the bodies are the bodies of your friends."

"So that means… you saw us dead?" Keith asked.

"Correct. A few fiends tried to sneak up on us while the illusion was active, so I killed them. Good thing I pulled off the trap. I wouldn't want any of you to have to see that. It's troubling for most people."

"What about you?" Drake asked.

"It was unsettling at most. But let's not dwell on it, let's just go through the gate and find the annoying mastermind who thinks he can beat us with such cheap tricks." The sphere in Matt's hand vanished. He smacked the gate and a blue portal opened in its arches. "After you."

"It's never done that before..." Flynn said.

"Just ignore it. It's so that your souls don't get accidentally torn to shreds in transit. I wouldn't want to have to gather up the pieces of a shredded soul from all over the shadow realm. That's never fun."

Drake was the first through the gate, and as soon as he felt solid ground under his hands he rolled to the side so no one would land on him. It was pitch-black again.

_This is annoying._ Drake thought. _All this darkness. I'll never sit in a poorly-lit room the same way again._ There was a soft _flump_ as someone landed next to him.

"Quite dark, isn't it?" Flynn said.

"Quite. You might want to move." The muffled _flump_ and the sudden "Ow!" suggested that Flynn wasn't fast enough.

"Didn't this happen to you, Drake?" Flynn asked.

"It did. I was one of the two that landed on him." Keith said, and got off of Flynn. Flynn stood up just fast enough to avoid the rest of them. It was still pitch-black, and it was getting hard to breathe.

"Is everyone here?" Yugi said.

"Matt's still back there." Ashley said. "He should be here in a minute."

"He… better hurry." Flynn said. "It's getting hard to breathe in here, and I don't want to stay here too long."

"What happened to that useful torch we had?" MacArthur said.

"I dropped it in that huge fight near the sixth gate."

"And never went back to get it?" Brooklyn said.

"I kind of forgot in the light that two people came back from the dead."

"Yeah, that would make me forget too."

Suddenly Drake saw light. Matt had appeared, and he was radiating a curious light. "How do you do that?" Drake asked.

"The Millennium Star. Stars generate light, right? The Millenium Star can generate enough light to even penetrate the darkness of the darkest shadows. The torch that Keith and I gave to Flynn, Brooklyn and MacArthur was made with its light channeled it fire. It will protect you all from the darkness as long as I'm around."

"You may be protected from the darkness, but are not protected from my power here!" came a sinister voice.

"Oh dear." Brooklyn said. "Sounds like our mastermind friend."

"I'm not your friend!" the mastermind shouted from his perch on a large formation of something that looked like purple shadows. "Nor will I ever be it! You have interrupted the ritual that would have given me absolute power! I'll just have to destroy you and then complete it!"

"With what?" Matt said. "I've pretty much destroyed everything you had, and I doubt you can muster more fiends to send at me. Might as well just give up right now, eh, kid? Why did you do this anyway? Who are you? It was a bad idea. Only a real idiot would have done something like this."

"You're supposed to be dead!" the mastermind said.

"I AM dead." Matt said. "But I am here on THE DIVINE ONE'S business, and I will not be deterred by nuisances such as yourself."

"Ha! You think I'm a nuisance? You don't even know who I am! How could you possibly know anything about me?"

"Because you have a distasteful aura in your soul. It tastes like a lust. Let's see here… lust for vengeance, I believe?" Matt smacked his lips as if he had just eaten something. "Tsk, tsk. That will get you nowhere. I felt it the first time I met you… so you might as well admit to it, kid."

The mastermind pulled off his hood, and his eyes were aflame. "You challenge my power?"

"William!" Drake shouted. "You jackass! Why?"

"To exact my vengeance on you, you fool! And on all your friends! And things were going so smoothly too, with the death of Matt, and my capture of that bitch Julie! Then I killed Keith and took away the soul of that stupid professor, I thought I was golden! But no! Somehow you manage to survive and interrupt my ritual! And what's worse, two of the people I killed are back! I'll just have to kill you all again! Rise up my army!"

Drake gaped in horror as fiends began to rise out of the floor to surround them. William smirked. "So I have no more fiends, eh? I guessed that you might try something like this, so I held more than half my army out on Earth! You only defeated the other army because they were taken unawares! Go, my fiends, kill them all!" And William vanished in a swirl of his cloak.

Matt, for some reason, was trying to suppress a smile. "How can you be smiling at a time like this?" Drake asked.

"Overlord violation." Matt said.

"What are you talking about?!?" Drake said.

"I'll tell you later." Matt turned to Ashley. "Keep them safe."

She nodded. "Right."

The fiends charged.


	25. Getting Out of Dodge

Chapter 25- Getting Out of Dodge

Matt raised his arms in the same manner he had back near the sixth gate. Again, full, transparent humans seemed to pull themselves from out of his flesh and launch themselves at the fiends. Once hit by the spirits Matt launched, the fiends would convulse on the ground and die. Once the spirits had made contact with a fiend, they would fly around and disappear into Matt again.

This attack kept the fiends at bay for some time. However, they eventually got close. Drake, for some reason reluctant to raise his rifle earlier, whipped it out and shot the nearest fiend in the jaw, sending it spinning away.

Matt had stopped firing off the spirit-things to attack now and had begun to fight in a completely different form now. As the fiends approached him from every angle, human limbs would shoot out and attack the fiends, sometimes pulling human torsos with them as the arm extended outward. Matt himself was holding one of his spinning blue spheres in each hand and using them to cut the fiends to pieces as if he were using a chainsaw. Whenever a fiend tried to attack him, the wall of faces sprouted up and defended Matt.

Pretty soon Drake got lost in the chaos. He lost track of everyone, and ended up fighting for his life. Despite the addition of Matt and Ashley, there were still enough fiends to cause an incredible amount of trouble. Fiends were coming from every direction- Drake could hardly keep track of them. And they were armed with all sorts of bizarre makeshift weapons. For all Drake knew, he could have been in a bar fight where anything went.

A feind came running at him, and empty glass bottle in its raised hand. Drake turned to meet the new threat, and was just bringing his rifle about as the fiend brought the bottle down toward Drake's head. Drake managed to get the rifle into a position where it blocked the blow, but then the bottle shattered, spraying glass into Drake's eyes.

"Gah!" Drake said. He was blinded. He couldn't see a thing. He was going to die. _It can't end like this!_ He thought.

And then he heard the fiends all around him die. Then he heard a voice in his ear, kind and caring.

"Are you okay?" It asked.

"I… I can't see." He said.

"Here." He felt a pressure on his eyes as the person placed their hand over them. Drake heard another fiend die. Then there was an odd sensation in his eyes that he couldn't began to explain, but when the person removed their hand and he opened his eyes, he could see. Ashley was standing next to him, her clothes bloodstained and her hand glowing faintly.

"Thanks…" Drake said.

"Don't thank me yet, we're not out of this." She said, her foot lashing out and completely separating a fiend's upper half from its lower. "Let's get out of here and get back to the others. We'll be stronger together."

Drake saw motion over Ashley's shoulder. "Look out!" He said. He was too late. A fiend with a bow had drawn and fired in the time he had seen it, and by the time he had shouted the warning the arrow was already halfway to them. It caught Ashley in the right side, between her ribs. She staggered backwards from the pain. Drake, annoyed at himself because it had been him that had caused this, emptied what was left of his clip into the fiend's stomach, killing it and then some.

Fiends were still swarming about everywhere. Drake locked in a new clip, but before he could fire a single shot, an incredibly loud and deadly voice stopped him. Matt was speaking, running at the clump of fiends.

"IT'S OVER." He said, and made a horizontal gesture as if trying to cut the air with the index and middle fingers on his right hand. The gesture left a huge white streak in the air, even larger than the arc his fingers had created. Three fiends were instantly cut in half, as if by an invisible blade. Matt continued to swing his fingers around like swords, sometimes making huge slashes, sometimes simply jabbing forward. Each motion left a huge white streak in the air, and each stroke rent fiends into various degrees of pieces. Pretty soon their wasn't a fiend in one piece.

"How do you do that?" Drake asked.

"Remember how I was cursed by all those spirits back in Egypt? When they did that curse, each and every one of them took up residence in the shell I call my body. By utilizing large amounts of energy, I can manipulate the spirits in my body to perform certain tasks, such as fight for me, go out and spy for me, and help me feel the essence of other people's souls. As I am, I really cannot say "I," I should really be saying "We," because we are truly one being. I can manipulate them as if they were Evil Matt or Good Matt."

"But wouldn't they not listen to you? I mean, you did kill them." Flynn said.

"While that is true, they don't want me to die because they want my suffering to be longer, or they forgave me and want to make up for cursing me. But, as I said, it takes a lot of energy for me to do it, that's why you've never seen me do it before. But now that I'm not really alive, there is no limit to how much energy I have, so I can do it easily now. I can fire them like projectiles, spawn extra human parts from my body like this…" Suddenly, five more arms were sticking out of Matt's shoulder, and Drake recoiled. "…kinda creepy huh?" The arms retracted. "And then they will protect me should something try to hurt me, that's what the wall of faces is for."

"You've never even shown that to me." Ashley said. Despite the arrow in her side, she looked unfazed. "How long have you been able to use it?"

"I figured it out while I was training. I was trying to move some fire for something and I instead shot a spirit out. I never have used it much, even at my peak, except against the strongest enemies or largest hordes. And shouldn't you remove that pretty soon?"

"It's stuck between my ribs." She said. "And I can't get it loose without breaking off the arrowhead."

"Sounds painful." Keith commented.

"It is." She assured him. Matt stepped over next to her and seized the shaft of the arrow. He then gave one good yank, easily removing the arrow from her side. She gave a shout of pain. "Tell me when you're going to do that! I think you chipped one of my ribs." She placed her hand on the open wound on her side. Her hand glowed green, and when she removed it the wound was gone. Matt lazily snapped the arrow in half between his fingers.

"It's better than if we left if there." He said. "Oh, yes, and one more thing. I can use the spirits in my body to enhance my strength to a sum equivalent to the total physical strength of all the souls in my body. That's why I can shove my fist through these fiends, in case you were wondering. The same sort of thing applies to my speed and how fast my body heals.."

"What exactly does that mean?" Drake asked.

"Example: If I by myself can bench 250 lbs., and I can, that is the normal output of my muscles. However, I can force my muscles to exert more force because of the souls. Let's assume, for the purpose of this example, that all the souls in my body, while they were alive, could bench 75lbs. There are 1,238 souls in my body. Therefore, while using the souls in my body to enhance my strength, I can bench up to 93,100 lbs. of weight."

"That's ridiculous strength." Flynn said.

"Now I know how you managed to pick up that huge fiend earlier." Drake muttered.

Matt smiled. "Yeah, that was a bad idea. You see, doing that increases the strain on my muscles to such levels that they began to teat themselves apart. Of course, now that I'm not alive, there is nothing restraining how much I can use that strength. And I assure you, it's even greater than the example I just gave you."

"Don't go overboard soldier." MacArthur said.

"Of course not, sir." Matt said. "Let's get going. Helen is getting restless." He turned on his heels and marched out of the room. Everyone quickly followed.

"At least now we know who we're looking for." Keith said. "William Maquine… I knew he hated us, but I didn't think he would go this overboard."

"That was funny, how he got so mad at Matt that he revealed his identity." Flynn said.

"Yeah, in direct violation of Overlord principles. Someone hasn't done his homework." Matt said.

"Again I ask, what are these Overlord principles?" Drake said.

"There used to be a list online that essentially documented every mistake an evil Overlord could make and offering a solution. For example, one of the statements was, 'I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them,' you know, the mistakes that the bad guys in movies usually make. Be revealing his identity and his purpose, he violated these principles. Such errors are usually why world-takeover attempts fail. Hm." They had already made it to the gate. "That was quick."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Drake asked.

"It is, but it feels suspicious." Brooklyn said. "Like those stairs last year at the end that we shouldn't have gone down, remember?"

"Yeah."

Matt placed his hand on the gate. "No, this is it. It must be the lack of fiends that makes it seem like that. Well then, go on." He gestured for them to go through the gate. Again, Drake was first through and he landed in total darkness. Before long, everyone had joined them, and they set off again in Matt's light.

"Where did we leave Helen?" Flynn said. "I was in such as rush to stop these guys that I lost track of where we were."

"Somewhere past that one three-way crossroads." MacArthur said. "Not too far from there, but from this side it's hard to tell where that is."

"No worries." Matt said, his mismatched eyes roving. "We'll find it. It's doubtful that, in all the excitement, they bothered removing her body." He took a step forward, then stopped, his blood-red eye widening. "There's something here."

"Is it big or something?" Flynn asked.

"Not really. But I didn't expect to encounter anything around here, since it does take some time for them to regenerate. It's probably a shadow, though, which is kind of annoying, since it takes a lot of hits to actually kill one. Usually they just regenerate themselves if something tears them apart."

"So what's the fastest way past it?" Keith asked.

"Don't tear at it. Use a blunt weapon and hit it as hard as possible." Matt said. "I'll take care of this." His left foot slid out in front of him, and he crouched down on his right leg. He extended his arms over their respective leg, palms up, and stood there, eyes looking past his left arm. "It's coming…"

The black form of the shadow slid around the corner and saw them almost instantly. Its yellow mouth opened into an evil cackle until it noticed Matt. And by then, it was too late.

Matt leapt forward from his stance and stabbed the shadow using the index and middle fingers on each hand. In a quick motion he spun and stabbed it twice more in the same way, then he spun again and continued to deal stabbing blows. He continued this pattern three more times, except that each set of blows was longer and faster. Drake lost count of how many shots he got in after the second set. Matt dealt one final blow, and the shadow vanished as if blown by the wind.

"There." Matt said. "It's gone."

"Copy." Brooklyn said.

"If it works… do it."

"Sure… copy."

Matt shook his head, smiling a little, and gestured them forward.

They found Helen's body about twenty yards from where Matt killed the shadow. It was slumped up against a wall near a bloody area. Matt walked over to it, crouched down besides it, and placed two fingers on the body's shoulder.

"Go." He whispered, and a blue aura traveled down his arm toward the body. Helen twitched once, and slowly opened her eyes.

"I'm alive, right?" she said weakly.

"That's right." Matt said. "You've had it rough." He helped her to her feet. "But I think you owe someone an apology, and it isn't me. I've felt your regret myself, so you don't need to apologize to me." Helen looked over the group.

"Who is… oh!" She noticed Ashley standing at the right end of the group. "You're down here!"

"Yes." Ashley said. "I am. I wanted to help them, so I came."

"And got caught, I heard." Helen said. "You're worth as much as I am, except without all the bitterness and snide remarks."

"Which makes her just a little bit better than you." Drake said.

Helen nodded. "It's true. I was a jerk to you, and I feel sorry for it. My actions have been… detestable. I could understand why you would want to leave me somewhere for dead, the way I've acted. But I ask you not to. I'll stop. I realize that Matt isn't as bad as I though he was, even if he did kill all those people…"

"Unintentionally." Matt said.

"Yes, that's part of the reason why my actions were unjustified." She said. "I am truly sorry for being such an ass all this time. It wasn't my place." Helen moved to Ashley. "I have to apologize to you individually, because I was very insensitive about a touchy subject at an inappropriate time."

"It's okay." Ashley said. "I've had people say many worse things to me."

"Yeah, like the one time you completely failed on that one mission about three years ago and that guy said-" Brooklyn started. He never got to finish because Ashley punched him hard enough in the mouth to lift him off his feet and send him rolling down the hall.

"Don't remind me of that!" She said. Brooklyn groaned in pain as he struggled to get to his feet. "Oh, are you okay?" Ashley ran to his side and helped him to his feet. Everyone looked at Matt, struggling not to laugh at the irony of what Ashley had done. Matt smiled in a funny way and shrugged.

"It's good to have you back, Professor." Drake said.

"It's good to be back." Helen said. "I hope I never act like I did again."

"You won't." Matt said. "Now let's go. We need to get out of here before the mastermind actually does send every fiend at his command after us. I'd be the only one to make it out, and I would hate that."


	26. Back to the Surface

Chapter 26- Back to the Surface

"So we're going to go back to the Point of Solitude?" Flynn asked.

"Yes." Matt answered.

"How are we going to get there?" Keith said.

Matt waved his hand in the air carelessly. "I'm sure something will turn up."

"That hasn't worked so well in the past." Flynn said.

"Really?" Drake said. "It seems to me it has."

Flynn opened his mouth and raised a finger to argue the point, then looked off to his upper left as if there was something there that was contradicting his thoughts over there. He shut his mouth, then spoke. "I've gotta stop disagreeing with Matt."

"Many people have said that." Matt said, gesturing for them to move forward. "But enough standing around. We'll got off this island somehow." He took a step forward, only to have a fiend attempt to stop him. It swiped at him, only to have its attack foiled by the wall of spirits defending Matt. Matt shook his head in disgust.

"That wasn't very nice." He said, as he placed a single finger on each side of the fiend's head and pressed in. The fiend's head exploded. "Then again, neither was that."

"That was… incredible." MacArthur said.

"I suppose." Matt replied. "You should see it when I do it to a tank."

"Yeah, it's incredible to see a huge metal machine suddenly squeezed as flat as a pancake between two human hands." Brooklyn said.

"I would think so." MacArthur said.

"Enough fawning over my power." Matt said. "Let's go already. I'm getting a bit impatient." He took a step toward another hallway. "Come on, then." Everyone followed.

_I wonder what how he thinks we'll get out of here._ Drake thought. _Maybe he thinks we'll have another problem with the gate and it'll spit us out somewhere else. But that would probably be just as bad as being on the island…_

Matt reached around a corner and came back around holding what looked like a black tube. A fiend fell over in front of them. Matt tossed the tube away.

"What was that?" Drake asked.

"The fiend's throat. I thought I would relieve him of the responsibility of breathing. Apparently though, such a responsibility is to die for."

"Clearly." Brooklyn said. "As he just died from being relieved of it."

"You have a weird sense of humor." Helen said. "I think it falls somewhere between the lines of sickening and sadistic."

"Yep. It's always been that way."

"I see."

At the end of the hallway was the gate to the second level. Matt checked it. "Should be clean. Should I go first or come last?"

"You go first. I'd rather not drop into a room of things I can't kill." Flynn said.

"Yeah." Keith said. "I don't want to die _again._"

Matt chuckled a little and stepped through that gate. Once he had, the stone doors of the gate suddenly shut. Flynn grabbed the handles and pulled. "Oh, damn it…"

"They locked, didn't they?" Ashley said.

"Yeah. And I don't think we can unlock them." Flynn said. "We don't have the key!"

"Ah, but that is not the only thing that can unlock the gate." Brooklyn said.

"Hm?" Helen said. "I thought you needed the key to open the gates."

"The key is one of ten items that can open that gate at the moment. The others are…" Brooklyn started.

"…the now nine Millennium Items." Yugi finished.

"Why are these overlords so hell bent on the key, then?" Keith asked.

"Because to get a Millennium Item from someone, you must engage them in a Shadow Game for it. Currently, there are only two people who have the items. Matt has, or more properly, had one of them. The other is with Chris." Yugi said.

"Don't you have one?" Drake asked.

"I had the other seven, but they're all in the Tablet of the Pharaoh's Memories now. I didn't keep them."

"Ah."

Brooklyn stepped forward, holding out his Millennium Shell. "Let's not do too much discussing now. I'm sure Matt's in a half-panic over the door closing behind him." He placed the shell on the gate and his hand flat over it. The door began to glow around the edges and started to swing open, only to stop almost immediately after it had begun. Brooklyn's eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong?" MacArthur said. "I thought you said you could open this damn thing."

"I can. But someone is trying to shut it at the same time." Brooklyn said, focusing hard on the door. It began to inch open. "Come on, come on… somewhere watch behind us!"

Drake turned quickly and saw some fiends trying to sneak up on Ashley, who had been at the tail end of the group. _She's turning into another Julie, getting into bad spots all the time!_ He thought, drawing his rifle to try and stop them. He was, as usual, too slow. The closest fiend managed to bury its huge claw in her right shoulder before he could shoot it. She screamed, turned, and planted her foot firmly into the fiend's skull with her ridiculous strength. The fiend died and started to fall over, but its claw was stuck in Ashley's shoulder. The other fiends, hoping to take advantage of an apparently slowed target, rushed at her.

Drake opened fire along with all of the others. The fiends in the front, apparently anticipating this, raised what looked like enlarged SWAT shields and deflected the hail of bullets. Drake, frustrated, kicked out his empty clip and reached for another. He would just wait until they put down the shields. Then again, the fiends were so much bigger than them that they would probably just trample them and not bother putting the shields down to attack.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn was still struggling to force the gate open. Whoever was on the other side had redoubled their efforts, or gotten some people to help him. The gate was still opening, but at an almost imperceptible rate. Brooklyn was doing everything he could to keep it moving.

Keith pulled out his bazooka. "This is the last rocket I've got…" He muttered, taking aim at the center of the pack. He pulled the trigger and the bazooka sputtered, then fizzled out. "Hmm… that didn't work…" He threw it away toward the group of fiends. It blew up in midair.

"Good thing you got rid of it." Flynn said.

"Yeah, so I could die the same way as all of you, huh?" Keith said.

"I guess so."

Ashley had been trying to skillfully work the claw out of her shoulder, to no avail. Now she seized the fiend's arm and pulled the claw out forcefully, probably tearing out some of her muscle. Without the huge weight of the fiend to slow her down, she ran toward the oncoming of fiends.

"Wait!" Drake shouted, but she just ignored him. He looked back at the others. "She's crazy!"

"Probably got that from hanging out with Matt and Brooklyn a lot." Helen said.

"Probably." Keith said.

Ashley jumped and landed a flying kick into a fiend's shield. There was a loud _dong_ as the metal that was meant to withstand bullets had a hole punched through it by the tremendous impact. Drake raised his rifle, waiting for Ashley to move so that he could get a shot through the hole. Ashley pushed off the outside of the shield, pulling her leg out of the hole it had created and knocking the fiend over into its compatriots. Drake, seeing the massive opening, began to hammer away at the group of fiends.

The other fiends quickly pulled in to close the hole, leaving some other fiends vulnerable on the outer edges of the group. Flynn, Keith and MacArthur lazily picked them off.

Meanwhile, Ashley made another run at the front of the fiends. This time, she punched the ground so hard that she opened a fissure in the ground that caused the fiends in the center of the group to fall into each other, creating multiple gaps in the formation. She jumped into the formation, throwing sharp objects at the fiends. Drake's clip clicked empty and he ejected it for a fresh one.

Ashley had gotten herself out of the fiend's group by now and had moved at her miraculous speed to rejoin the others. "Boom." She said, and several explosions went off in the fiends, killing each and every one of them. Her right arm hung limp and was bleeding hopelessly.

"Are you okay?" Drake asked.

"I… I'm fine." She said. Drake opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Brooklyn.

"You'll have to deal with that later!" He said, the gate open next to him. "I've got the gate open, and you need to get through it before I run out of gas and it gets shut again!" Ashley darted through the open gate, closely followed by Drake. Drake heard someone start running behind him before the sensation of gate travel cut off all sound.

He opened his eyes to see Matt finishing off a fiend that he was holding by the neck. Matt tossed the fiend body aside and turned to see the two of them.

"What kept… what happened to you?!?" He said, dropping down next to Ashley, who was lying on the ground, holding her blown-open shoulder.

"A fiend tore it open… and I couldn't fix it with the time we had. Brooklyn had to try and force the gate open… it shut behind you."

"Did it now…" Matt muttered. "So he tried to cut me off from you? Clever… but as long as we have both Brooklyn and me we should be fine. Let me take a look at that…" He removed Ashley's hand from over her shoulder and looked at it. Drake, with nothing else to attract his interest, looked too.

The wound had somehow turned an ugly green around the edges, and blood was seeping out at a dangerous rate. Her shoulder had collapsed as there was no longer any muscle in it to give it any shape. Drake could see white underneath all the red.

"Hm." Matt said. "That's quite ugly." He placed his hand over the wound. Slowly, Ashley's shoulder began to regain some shape. At the same time, Matt's shoulder began to fall apart.

"Matt! You know I don't like you hurting yourself for my sake…" Ashley said.

"Do you think this actually hurts?" He said. "I'm dead. I don't feel any pain anymore." He removed his hand, Ashley's shoulder completely restored. At the same time, his shoulder healed itself.

"How do you do that?" Drake asked.

"I developed a technique that allows me to take the wounds of others as my own. Because of my quick healing, it was quite a useful thing. Now that I can't feel it anyway, it's even more useful."

"I see."

Flynn dropped in on them. "Sorry it took so long." He said. "We got hung up on some more fiends." Keith and Helen dropped in right next to him.

"This is going to get messy." Keith said. "He just keeps sending more and more fiends after us."

"I thought it was bad before." Helen said. "This is even worse." MacArthur and Yugi joined them. The gate began to slide shut, only to have Brooklyn pop out of it.

"That was close." He said.

"What was?" MacArthur asked. A fiend's clawed hand came through the door, only to get caught in the closing stones. "Ah. That."

"Close the blast door! Open the blast door, open the blast door!" Matt said, laughing. Brooklyn, Ashley, and MacArthur laughed with him.

"What?" Drake said.

"You're too young, I think." Matt said. "It's in a movie. Let's get moving before they do open the door again."

Matt led them down another series of twisting corridors with no resistance (_these things seem endless_, Drake thought, _I've lost track of how many I've been down… man my legs hurt from all this walking_) and paused at the end.

"Hmm…"

"What's out there?" Flynn said.

"Let's see… I feel radioactive fallout." He said, and turned to Brooklyn. "You threw that flash grenade I gave you, didn't you?"

"Uh… no?"

"Liar. What did I tell you about that?"

"That it wasn't supposed to be lethal to us but might be… it was only supposed to kill fiends. I think that's it."

"And I told you not to use it in somewhere you'd have to go back through!"

"Oh."

"Stop being so mean to Brooklyn!" Ashley said.

"Well, he's being stupid again. Now, thanks to him, we've got to walk through a nuclear area. You see, that bomb he threw was in fact a sort of nuclear hand grenade. It was only made with about a centigram of Uranium, so it was much less powerful than a full bomb. But it still left fallout. Now we have to walk right through it. Of course, I don't really care about it myself, but I worry about what it may do to you guys."

"Nice going, Brooklyn." Flynn said.

"Hey, it saved our lives earlier!" He protested.

"And now it's hindering us now."

"How do we get across it?" Keith said. "We can walk through it, but it may be dangerous and/or lethal."

"That's the dilemma. The gate at the other end is shut, as I would expect. I have to go across first, and after what happened the last time I was separated from you guys, I don't want to do it again. But it may be necessary…"

"We'll just have to run through it." MacArthur said. "And hope for the best. It won't go away for several years, and we can't afford to wait that long. Especially since this William kid could just mass all of his fiends on either side of us and then crush us that way."

"Okay then. I guess that means I have to go on ahead and force the gate open." Matt pulled the Millennium Star from his cloak, flicked it up in the air, and caught it. "Don't die back here, and wait till I tell you to come." He raced across the chamber and placed the Star on the door. It began to open, slowly at first, then more rapidly as Matt put more effort into it. "All right, go!"

Ashley, the fastest of all of them, was across first. She dove headfirst into the gate. MacArthur, still in military shape and despite being quite out of his prime, was second across. Brooklyn was right behind him, strengthened by his undoubtedly wild adventures with Matt. Yugi, surprisingly fit for someone who played cards more than he got out, was fourth in. Flynn followed him, with Helen right on his heels. Drake and Keith were the last two.

"Come on, come on, get through there!" Matt shouted. Drake dove through the gate and landed in the familiar chamber at the core of the first level. Keith came through groaning after him.

"I need to get out more." He said, gasping for air.

"See? Not doing all your homework has some benefits." Drake said.

"Ha! Even though everyone else was out before you?"

"Hey, not everyone has the motivation to run for three miles every morning, and Helen's in her prime. It's not like she's out of shape, either. And the others… well, they're self-explanatory."

Matt came through the gate. "That went okay. Let's get going before William gets a chance to launch another feeble assault. They're annoying."

"And I think they're a little more than feeble." Flynn said.

"No, Ashley's just injury-prone and quite clumsy." Matt said. "She's almost as bad as me. I think she got hurt on 95 of all the missions she went on."

"I'm not going to deny it." She said.

"What were you, then?" Drake asked.

"100 injury rate. Never could get through one without some bizarre incident." He turned toward the balcony they had come in through the first year. There were stairs leading off to the side. "Does he think we'll fall for the same trick again?"

"Probably." Brooklyn said. "But we now know there are no secure stairs there! So ha! Uh, how are we going to get out then?"

"This way?" Drake said, wandering a short ways down a familiar-looking passage. Matt nodded.

"That way, if I remember right, leads to the Vault of Souls, and I believe it is the quickest way out of the Shadow Realm. So let's go down it."

After an uneventful trip down the passage, past the vault of souls, and through the arch, they were back on Earth. Drake stretched his arms.

"Feels good to be out in the natural light after all that." He said.

"Quite, but we're not out of this yet." Keith said.

"Yes, we've still got to get off this island." Helen said.

"Does anyone have a phone with which we could call my dad?" Drake asked.

"I do." MacArthur said, pulling it out. "Number?"

"Um… 708-681- 9264." MacArthur dialed it up and handed the phone to Drake. His dad picked it up after two rings.

"Yes? Who is this?" Drake's dad said.

"Dad, it's me. Can you come get us off this island?" Drake's dad laughed. "What's funny?"

"You won't believe it, but I'm en route and not even five minutes away. Something told me you guys would need a lift. I had actually planned on waiting for a call after I refueled, but something told me that I needed to get going a while ago. So I got up in the air and came out here."

"See you in a little while, then." Drake said.

"Yeah." Mr. Stizen hung up. Drake shut MacArthur's phone and handed it back to the general.

"Is he coming?" Helen asked. She had gone off a little to stretch.

"He's not even five minutes away!" Drake said.

"No way! How?"

"Something told him to come some time ago… wait a minute… it wasn't you, was it, Matt?"

"Guilty!" Matt said, throwing his hands in the air. "I visited Rick before I came back to get you. That's probably why my heroic antics were so late. Sorry about that."

"Well, it greatly improved the waiting time here, so I think that we can forgive you for that." Flynn said. "Let's get to the airstrip." In about ten minutes they had made their way to the airstrip. Drake's dad was waiting at the other end in the B-17.

"Come on!" He shouted. "I don't want to have to deal with any of those creatures!"

"Hang on a minute…" Keith said. "Will we all fit in there? We've got a couple more people than last time."

"Doesn't matter." Matt said. "Ashley and I can stand."

"That's not exactly safe!" Drake's dad said.

"For us it is. Everyone in!" Matt said. Everyone clambered into their respective turrets/chairs. Matt was standing in the center aisle, with Ashley a few feet farther down the plane. "Alright, go!" There was a loud noise as the plane started up and took off, dragging them upwards into the sky.


	27. Back to the Point

Chapter 27- Back to the Point

"Shouldn't we land at the UN and tell them what's going on first?" Drake shouted over the noise of the B-17's engines.

"That's impossible." Drake's dad replied. "The UN got nuked."

"WHAT?!?" Flynn shouted.

"The UN got hit by a nuke!" Mr. Stizen said. "I saw it on the news just before I left!"

"That makes rebuilding a little more difficult." Matt said. "We now have no world leaders! Oh well, they were all dirty politicians anyway."

"You don't like politicians?" Drake asked.

"Not a one. And now they're all gone. Just head for…" Matt gave Drake's dead a set of bearings that apparently Mr. Stizen understood but Drake couldn't understand a lick of it. "It's my place in the middle of the Alps. I have my own landing strip."

"Alright, we should be able to get there." Mr. Stizen said. "Hold on tight, it's going to be a long ride and this thing isn't exactly new."

-------------------------------------

After a long flight they landed at the Point of Solitude, nearly crashing into Matt's house after a long skid down the snowy runway.

"You could've told me that the runway was going to be slick, Matt." Mr. Stizen said as they disembarked.

"I thought you would assume that it was, since it is in the Alps." Matt said.

"I'm a little off today. Can't think straight."

"I see. Stay with the plane." Matt turned to Drake. "Do you still have her soul?"

Drake checked his pocket and confirmed that he still had it. "Yeah, I've got it. Why do you ask? You didn't think I would lose it, did you?"

"I guessed that you wouldn't, but you never know, you can be pretty careless." Matt held out his hand. "Give me it. I'll put it back where it belongs."

Drake reluctantly withdrew Julie's soul from his pocket and placed it in Matt's hand. The blue stuff was instantly absorbed into his skin. Matt turned and opened a door on the side of the house. "Everyone in before you get cold out here, eh?" Everyone filed through the door and into Matt's hideout. Matt shut the door and came in. "Discuss what we're going to do. I'm going to go and wake our cursed friend." He strode across the room and through the door to the medical bay where they had left Julie's body.

Ashley flopped down onto the couch, apparently exhausted. "It's been a long time since I've had to fight like that."

"Are you okay if you have to come out again?" Drake asked.

"I should be, but… it doesn't matter. Matt doesn't like to function in such a large cell, so he'll probably cut a few people from the group so that it's smaller."

"But why would he cut you out?" Flynn said. "As far as I've seen, you're better at fighting than any of us."

"You're supposed to be stronger than Brooklyn, even." Drake said. "That's what you told me."

"Well, I don't know about that…" Brooklyn said.

"It's true and you know it!" Matt shouted from the other room. "Generate some meaningful conversation!"

"Battle plan, then." MacArthur said. "What are our options?"

"We cannot kill them all." Yugi said. "That is literally impossible. As soon as we kill them, they are revitalized in their respective level of the Shadow Realm. Thus, a rout victory is impossible in these circumstances."

"True." Brooklyn said. "How else are we going to defeat them, then?"

"Aren't they supposed to be neutral creatures?" Keith said.

"Yes… they are, supposedly." Flynn said. "But they don't seem to be, they seem to be overzealously pursuing their own conquest of the world, quite apart from William's orders."

"They're neutral unless they are given a chance to revive their 'Sacred One'." Drake suddenly remembered. "Then, they will try to resurrect him at all costs, even their leader. They don't care for the leader, but since he gives them hope, they will follow him until the 'Sacred One' is reborn. Once he is, the Mastermind of the time becomes the 'Sacred One's' puppet."

"What are you suggesting?" Helen asked. "That we take out the Mastermind before they make another run at this 'Sacred One?'"

"That would be a good plan." Keith said. "Or rather, we should take the key from him and THEN get rid of him. That way, one of the fiends doesn't accidentally get a hold of the key and try to do something themselves with it."

"So we go with that?" Flynn said. No one raised protest. "Okay, that's the general plan. Now, how do we find William to get rid of him?"

A door opened. Drake jumped up and turned to see Julie walking toward them, leaning against Matt for support. The extensive time for which she was out of her body seemed to have drained her coordination, but she looked fine otherwise. Drake hurdled the couch, ran toward her, and glomped her.

"You're okay!" He said, grabbing her around the waist a little more forcefully than he probably should have and lifting her off the ground. He was just so excited to see her alive and moving, rather than a pale, corpselike shell, that he couldn't contain himself.

"Ow! Not so hard!" She said, but her return embrace suggested that she was just as delighted to see him as he was to see her. "I'm happy to see you too, but if you don't stop squeezing so hard I might not be around for long!" Drake set her down and let go. Julie staggered a little and grabbed Drake's shoulder to stop herself from falling over.

"Nice to have you back." Flynn said. "Have a seat." Drake helped Julie over to the couches and sat her down. He sat down next to her. Matt stood behind the two of them, his hands gripping the back of the couch.

"What did you decide?" He asked.

"We're going to find and… eliminate William." Keith said. "We must also obtain the key. That way, we figure, the fiends will stop because there is no leader, and with no leader, the fiends return to neutrality."

"That's a fair plan. First stage, find William, correct?"

"Yes."

"Alright. I'm going to reduce the size of this expedition. Fewer people makes our overall strength weaker, but it also makes us more mobile and less of a target. It also provides less for me to have to watch, which makes me a bit more effective."

"So who're you going to take with you soldier?" MacArthur said.

"Let's see…" Matt walked around the couch so that he could see each of them. He walked to the opposite end of the couch, and then back, as if sizing each of them up. "For this mission, I need Julie. She's the only one who can hold the key, and since we plan on 'relieving' William of it, that's an absolute necessity. Next I'll take… Drake. I'd hate to leave him here while his girl is risking her life. Hehehe…"

"Is everyone going to make fun of me for that?" Drake said.

"Is it that bad that they do?" Julie said, leaning closer to Drake and putting her arm around his shoulders.

"I guess not…" Drake said, sliding over closer to Julie.

Matt turned to the remaining people seated on the couch. "Let's see… who else could I use for this… I'll have Flynn and Keith, that's five… to make it even, I'll have Helen come with as well."

"Despite the fact that she hasn't won a single shadow game ever?" Brooklyn said.

"She won once." Matt corrected. "That's all. Anymore and the cell's too big for me. Everyone else, hang around here and wait for me to call. I may need something, and if there are some _reliable_ people around here…" He looked pointedly at Brooklyn. "…it might actually get done."

"Hey, I'm reliable."

"Remember last year when you gave me a packet of papers on papers on the production of Swiss Cheese in Ireland instead of what I had asked for?"

"I was rushed!"

"Exactly. I don't want you to make another mistake if I have to rush you to find something. Now, while you're sitting here, you could instead be finding out where William lives."

Brooklyn jumped off of the couch and ran up the stairs. MacArthur and Ashley were right behind him. Ashley stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to look at Matt. "Will I see you again?"

Matt turned and looked contemplatively out a window. After about a minute, he looked over his shoulder at her. "At least once more." Ashley nodded and went up the stairs. Matt turned to Yugi.

"What are you going to do?" He asked.

"I think I will get back to my own quite solitude." Yugi said. "I have done all I can here, and I believe you have enough people here."

"That's fine. You've done more than enough. Thank you for watching these guys in my absence." Matt replied. Yugi stood and left through the elevator. Matt returned to the team he had selected. "In a few moments we will have our destination. At that time, we will depart for said destination via air. We are going to raid William's home for anything of value- namely, information on his whereabouts or him. I doubt that he will be there, but I do expect a large number of fiends to be there."

"Specifically what should we look for?" Flynn asked.

"Anything that looks like it would contain personal information or notes. Something like a personal journal/diary, a computer, specifically a laptop, particularly one in his room, or books that look like they have something to do with the Shadow Realm. We may be able to glean some information from those on his plans."

"Why are we looking at his house?" Keith asked. "Shouldn't we raid his dorm room first?"

"If there was anything left there, yes." Helen said. "But after the incident with Flynn, William's parents brought him and everything he owned from Duel Academy back to his house, along with him."

"Ah. So we look for his room or stuff with his name on it?"

"It'll probably all be in his room." Matt said. "Not too much time has passed since he was taken home, so he probably hasn't unpacked."

"He never was all that quick about things." Drake said. Brooklyn came down the stairs with a sheet of paper in his hands. He walked across the room and handed it to Matt. Matt reached out a semi-transparent hand, took it, and quietly read it.

"Alright." Matt said, folding up the paper and storing it in one of the many pockets in his cloak. "That's all we need for now. Anything else, and I'll send someone along. They'll tell you what I need. And you had better get it right!"

"Come on, when have I ever let you down?" Brooklyn said.

"Many times, Chris, many times. Production of Swiss Cheese in Ireland."

"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"For as long as I… well, I can't exactly say that, now, can I? I'm dead. Why did we even have those papers there?"

Brooklyn shrugged. "I don't know. Following world trends?"

Matt shook his head. "Get back to work, slacker." Brooklyn went back upstairs. "Is everyone ready? Julie, in particular." Everyone nodded. "That's good. This is going to be tough. If anyone wants to back out now, tell me and I'll pull a replacement." No one moved. "Last chance. You can stay here, if you want." Still, no one moved. "Good. I wouldn't want anyone coming against their will. Come on." Matt led them out to the B-17. Mr. Stizen was disconnecting a long fuel hose from the plane.

"Done?" He said. "Good. I just finished as well."

"Thanks for doing all this flying for us, Dad." Drake said.

"It's not a problem. If this stops the flow of those beasts, I'll do anything. I wonder what's become of your mother…"

Drake didn't tell him, but he had a horrible suspicion that he had seen his mom amongst the prisoners near the sixth gate.

Drake climbed into the chin turret of the B-17. Flynn slid in under him, and the others dispersed to their seats. Matt sat next to Drake's dad in the copilot seat. "Care to explain what happened to you, ghost man?" Drake's dad asked.

"Well, I died, but I'm back temporarily to ensure that this mission is a success. After that, I'm gone. Had a nice retirement, Rick?"

"Not much of a retirement. Went into commercial flight and did some charter flights, then on my last one got hit by a fiend the size of a truck and nearly killed. I'm lucky that Drake and his friends found me when they did, otherwise I might have died anyway. Right after you died, actually."

"Hmm. Too bad. I wouldn't have minded seeing you again. Let's get this thing off the ground. We need to go here…" He pulled out the paper and showed it to Mr. Stizen. Mr. Stizen took it and read it slowly, twice.

"Okay. We should be able to make it there… there's an airport near there. If we start now, we'll make it there in a few hours. Should I wait for you when we get there?"

"Yes. We need a way out."

"Okay." Drake's dad started up the plane. "I might try to find a new plane while there, something better than this old thing. That way, we can get places faster." The bomber started down the now-snowless runway. In a minute they were in the air, on their way to William's house.

"Hey, what's up with the sky?" Drake said, looking through the glass of his turret. Drake expected some weirdness near the Point, as it was a magic place, but they were out of range of it now, and the sky wasn't a normal blue, and the clouds looked strange.

"That doesn't look normal." Flynn said from below him. "What's with those colors?" The sky had turned a curious rainbow of purples, blacks, and reds. The clouds were a hideous green.

"It means that the Shadow Realm is slowly beginning to fuse itself with ours." Matt said. "It's not a good sign. It means that the fiends are beginning to gain control of the world for themselves. We are likely one of a few groups left. The world leaders are gone. There are probably some guerilla units here and there, but they will be eradicated before long. Before long, the human population will be gone, except for those that the fiends have control of, and those can hardly be called humans. After all the true humans are gone, the fiends will rule this planet forever."

"So we have to stop them." Drake said. "But what will become of the world then? There are hardly any of us left."

"I don't know, Drake. I just don't know." Matt said. Silence returned, leaving Drake to think about the fate of the planet even if they did manage to salvage what was left.


	28. Intelligence Work

Chapter 28- Intelligence Work

Several hours later they landed in an airport outside of New York. It looked abandoned.

"Isn't this unsafe, seeing as this area just got hit by a nuke?" Keith asked.

"In theory, yes, but the fallout won't spread for a while." Matt said. "It was a small nuke."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "A _small_ nuke? There's no such thing as a small nuke."

"The army crafted a few so-called 'precision nukes' which only contain about 40 grams of Uranium. They don't devastate such a large area. Anyway, we're not headed in that direction. We're going to the suburbs, in the opposite direction, so we should be okay."

"Isn't that _Air Force One_ over there?" Drake's dad said, pointing out of the windshield of the B-17.

"So it is." Matt said. "I don't think the president will mind if we borrow if permanently."

"Seeing as he's dead, I doubt it." Helen said. Everyone disembarked, including Drake's dad, who rushed over to _Air Force One_, opened the door, jumped in, and pulled it shut behind him. Matt turned to the old plane, stuck something to it, and walked away.

"Don't want to leave something that will allow them to trace us too easily." He said. "Let's go. Thirty seconds till that thing blows up." They began to walk away, and, as Matt had said, thirty seconds later, the B-17 was torn apart by an explosion.

"Wasn't that a bit irrational?" Keith said. "What if _Air Force One _isn't in flyable condition?"

"It will be. Don't worry. And if it isn't, there are several other planes to choose from, all well-equipped, as they all ferried world leaders here."

"Ah. Where exactly are we going?"

"This way." Matt lead them down a side street. "William's home is in Brooklyn, pretty close to the city outskirts. He lives in a pretty large house; it should be easy to find."

"Why didn't we bring Brooklyn with if we were going to Brooklyn?" Julie asked. "Wouldn't he know the city he's named after well?"

"Brooklyn has never actually been to Brooklyn, not even once." Matt said. "Actually, I don't even think he's ever been over it either."

"Weird."

"Yeah, I thought so too." Drake said. "Is that it?" Drake pointed to a mass of fiends in the distance. They seemed to be defending a large house. Matt nodded.

"Yeah, that's probably it. Fortunately, they haven't noticed us yet. So, here we-" Matt was cut off by a gunshot. One of the fiend's head exploded. "-wait for the happy guerilla sniper to get a few shots off, then rush in, cut a swath through the fiends, stay together, and get into the house. Don't try to kill all the fiends, just stay close to me and keep firing to keep a lane open. Then, once we've gotten into the house, we'll clean up a bit so we can search easier."

Another gunshot rang out and another fiend went down. Several of the fiends who had guns began to search the area with the scopes on their guns, drawing all their attention away from Drake and the others. "Now looks like a good time." Keith said, as another fiend fell to the sniper.

"Yeah, let's go!" Drake said. Matt nodded and ran forward at a speed they could keep up to him at. Drake and Julie, the closest two to Matt, began to fire, drawing the attention of several of the fiends, one of whom had a rocket launcher. The rocket fiend roared, took aim, and fired. Immediately after he got the shot off, he collapsed, capped by the sniper. But the rocket was already moving. It came in to Matt's left, flying toward Julie and Helen. Before it got close, Matt stopped, reached out his hand, and snagged the rocket from the sky. Before it had stopped completely, Matt turned it around and sent it flying back at the fiends. The ensuing explosion created a hole in the swarm of fiends, augmented by the sniper's devastation.

"There's the hole, now let's move in!" Matt said. Drake followed him into the hole. He could hear Julie hammering away right behind him. The sniper had stopped firing.

A fiend to Drake's right tried to impale him on a spear. Suddenly, Matt's wall of faces stretched out and blocked the attack. Then, it rushed outwards, seized the fiend, lifted it off the ground, and tore it to pieces.

_Wow, that was kind of creepy. _Drake thought, staring at the falling fiend parts. Helen grabbed his arm and pulled him along.

"Stop staring and get moving! No one wants you dead!" She said.

"Right!" Drake said, getting back to running along behind Matt. They were almost there now, closing in on massive oak double doors that marked the entrance of the house. Matt was tearing anything in front of them apart.

They were right next to the oak doors now. Matt reached back and punched the doors, breaking both clean off the hinges. "In!" He shouted. Drake dove through the opening, rolling to his feet inside the house. There was no one there.

"Where is everybody?" He wondered aloud.

"Seems deserted." Flynn said, running his finger along a line of books on a shelf. "None of these have been touched in a while…"

"Shouldn't we try upstairs?" Helen asked. "That's usually where the bedrooms are…"

"Usually, but there's no guarantee that we'll find anything in his room." Keith said, firing through the opening as he backed into the house. Everyone safely inside, Matt grabbed the doors from off the ground and forced them back into the frame.

"That might hold them for a while. At least our sniper-happy buddy can take a few of them out before they can get in." Matt said. "Upstairs." He pointed toward the stairs and they all ran up the stairs, Flynn first, Keith last. They emerged onto a massive landing with hallways branching off in several directions.

"This could take a while." Julie said.

"No…" Helen said, crossing the landing, opening a door, and peering inside. "This is it."

"How do you know?" Flynn said, peering into it as well.

"Judging from the cards scattered across the room and the pictures." Helen said. "And the suitcases on the bed."

"How did you figure on that one?" Drake asked.

"The Maquine family is renowned for pampering their sons. I would suspect that his parents wouldn't want him to have to walk too far, so they would put his room as close to the stairs as possible. I'm actually surprised that the stairs aren't an escalator."

"Search the place!" Matt said. "Raid it! Pull everything off the walls! Everything out of the closet! If it can be moved… see that it is! If you find something, tell me!" Drake moved into the room and pulled open the closet. He began moving aside clothes that had been thrown onto the bottom until a book fell out of a pair of pants. Drake picked it up and read the title.

"I might have found something!" He shouted. Matt came over.

"Maybe. Look through it, check for notes, that sort of thing." He moved away to check up on something Keith had found. Drake opened the book and began to thumb through the pages.

"…but it's broken." Drake heard Keith say.

"Let me see this thing." Matt sat down at the computer that was in the room. "Hm… he seems to have induced an extremely powerful virus into his own computer to prevent someone from using it. It causes the computer to imitate a hard drive failure… but of course I can see it isn't. Everyone can stop looking now!" The random shuffling around the room stopped as everyone crowded around the computer. No one else had found anything. Drake kept skimming the book.

There was a loud crash from downstairs. "Sounds like our friends have broken down the doors again." Flynn said.

"Kill them as they come in." Matt said, still focused on the computer screen before him as he hit a series of complex moving targets that Drake knew he would never understand. "I can't multitask well enough to be any help to you, but it shouldn't be too hard for you guys to hold them off."

Drake slipped the book back into his pocket and cocked his rifle. He could hear the fiends thundering up the steps as Matt tapped at the keys of William's computer. Suddenly, the entire front wall of William's room was torn off and the fiends began to pour in. Drake dropped to a knee and began hammering away.

_I'm going to end up deaf after this,_ Drake thought, _with all this shooting going on._ He pulled out the old depleted clip and locked a new one into place. Matt was still typing away furiously.

"Hm… various notes… unrelated news articles… nothing on the Shadow Realm here…" He was muttering.

"Why don't you stop doing that and help us out here?!?" Keith shouted.

"I can't! There's a very tight time constraint that I need to hit to stop this computer from crashing itself for real." Matt didn't even look away from the screen. ".…here it is… various hate notes concerning us… oooo, that's a nasty one. Elaborate plans, notes about rumors of the Shadow Realm and its connection to the Academy…" The printer spit out several sheets of paper. "…let's see… more hate notes… hate notes… hate notes… location of his secret base… that could be useful…" Another sheet of paper came out of the printer.

"Hurry up Matt!" Helen shouted. "They're getting closer! Too close!" She stood and backed up a little. Drake swung his rifle at a fiend who had gotten too close, stood, and began to back up. Matt was still scanning the screen.

"Almost out of time… crap… let's see… more hate notes… more hate notes… notes on Julie's relation to this… that's a disturbing thought that he underlined there… hey, Julie, he's stalking you."

"WHAT?!?" Julie said.

"He's got cameras in your dorm room, it appears. I think he had suspicions to your role in this whole thing pretty close to beginning of this little misadventure, based on the rumors, but that doesn't warrant some of these… he's disturbed… or just very… uh…"

Julie stopped shooting for a minute and moved to look at the screen. Without her, the fiends were suddenly able to get close enough to attack everyone. "Wait!" Drake shouted. About eight fiends reached the line that they had formed, claws raised and ready to strike.

And suddenly they were blown away by a single burst of bullets from Drake's left. Drake stood still, shocked by this development. There was the sound of a shotgun being pumped, and then another blast. The fiends were stunned. The shotgun pumped again, and blew another hole in the fiends formation. There were no other sounds. Everyone was completely shocked and paralyzed by the sudden appearance of the shotgun-toting guy who no one had seen.

The shotgunnner kept blasting and blasting until the entire fiend army was gone. Somehow the shotgunner had taken down about 40 fiends with five shots. Everyone but Matt had frozen up at his appearance. Finally getting over the shock, Drake turned to look at him.

"Owned." Said the hoody-wearing person. He was carrying a sniper rifle on his back. "They all froze up because I'm just that awesome."

"Hello there Adam." Matt said, still intently focused on the computer screen. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking target practice on the fiends who stand outside this house! They're all so stupid, they've never caught me yet. I'm gonna go kill some more of those stupid things. I leave you again, with you fully knowing that I have saved your asses once more." Adam jumped out the window.

"That guy sounds kinda conceited." Flynn said.

"Yes, he tends to come off that way." Matt swept the papers out of the printer as the computer started to smoke. The screen went blank. "But he is incredibly combat-proficient, as you have probably noticed. And he can show up anywhere." Matt flipped a few papers away and checked something. "Interesting place for a secret base."

"Where?" Flynn said, moving over next to Matt. Matt gave him the paper. Drake noticed that Julie was still staring at the screen. Drake moved next to her and whispered in her ear.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Those pictures…ugh…" She shuddered. "Sometimes I wonder what he was thinking… he had these extensive notes… it seemed that he was… uh… enamored with me… or rather not with me… in a creepy way…" Drake put his arm around her.

"Just forget about them." He said. "We need to put this behind us. We need to move on. And we need to find William."

"And when we do, I'm going to kill that bastard for this…" She said. Drake was taken aback. He didn't think that Julie was capable of nasty thoughts, but then again, if he was in her position, he might be a little agitated too.

"Where are we going?" Helen asked after Flynn had scanned the page for a while.

"Everest." Flynn said. "He's got a very detailed plan for a secret hideaway there, so it would be rational that he would be there. We'll need to get up close to the top…"

"That's not good." Keith said. "It's quite an achievement to climb Everest for the most accomplished climbers, much less a bunch of no-talent mostly-out-of-shape teenagers and their school teacher."

"We'll have to manage somehow." Matt said. "We can't just let him sit up there with the world at his fingertips. No matter how many exceptional fighters we have, and we have quite a few, if he remains that isolated, he will defeat us eventually. So we'll have to get up there. Next stop, Nepal." He turned to Julie and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah… as soon as I get to William and kill him, I'll be fine." She said.

"Slow down there, killer. You'll get you shot, probably, but don't harbor those kinds of thoughts. Not yet anyhow."

"Okay… for now. But once I get the chance…" She shook her fist at nothing.

"Fine, fine." Matt waved a hand carelessly. "Let's get out of here. I have a really bad feeling…" They walked down the stairs and left the house. As soon as they got about ten feet away, the house exploded behind them, throwing each of them to the pavement but Matt, who of course couldn't feel it anyway. "That's what I was talking about."

"He rigged his house with a bomb?" Keith said. "Probably was activated when you hacked the computer."

"Most likely, but that's unimportant. What's important is to get out of here in case there are more bombs somewhere around here."

"Probably are some." Keith said. "I sure hope he didn't lock someone in there."

"If he did, we'll never know." Flynn said. "Let's go." Drake followed Flynn as he lead them back to the airport. _Air Force One_ was on an turning toward the end of the runway. As they entered the landing area, the plane stopped moving and Drake's dad popped out of the side door.

"It's ready!" He shouted. "It needed a little gas, but I've inspected the whole thing and it should still be flyable!"

"Should be?" Helen questioned.

"There's a couple of minor stress tears here and there, but they aren't near anything critical, and they don't look serious or deep. Now get on!" He dropped a folding staircase from the door and everyone climbed on.

"Nice." Flynn said, seating himself in a huge plush chair that looked like it belonged in a mansion rather than an airplane.

"This is all zero-class level seating." Matt said. "Of course it's nice."

"Zero-class?"

"Even better than first class."

"Ah."

Drake seated himself next to Julie, who was sitting next to a window. Matt left the cabin and entered the cockpit. The plane's engines whirred as they warmed up again, and they took off.

"And now." Matt said over the plane intercom. "If you'll look out your windows, you'll see our in-flight entertainment for today." Drake leaned past Julie, who was still seething over what she had seen in the computer, and saw huge flames leaping out of the buildings of New York.

"The entire city is blowing up!" Keith said. Matt came out of the cockpit, a manic glow in his eyes.

"I know, isn't it cool?" He said.

"That's not exactly the word I would have used to describe it, but you have to admit it is quite impressive." Flynn said. "One of the largest cities in the world, up in a burst of flames… if there was still someone alive there, they won't be alive much longer."

Drake flopped back into his seat, exhausted by all the destruction. It was starting to get worse. There was hardly anything left of the human population, and pretty soon there would be nothing left of the infrastructure that the humans had lived in.

_If this doesn't end soon,_ Drake thought, _there might not be much of a world to save._


	29. Up a Mountain

Chapter 29- Up a Mountain

The plane landed in Everest a few hours later. Despite the daylight, Drake felt tired. He had traveled a decent way around the world, against the Earth's rotation, through several time zones, and had gotten next to no sleep. Every time he fell asleep, he was haunted by the images of the past year and the last week. It wasn't just annoying now, it was hazardous to his health.

_I gotta ask Matt for some help with this._ Drake thought, rubbing his eyes. _He had something last time, he usually can do something. _Julie had fallen asleep on his shoulder, apparently exhausted from her rage. Drake now shook her awake.

"We're here, Juile." He whispered.

"What…? Where are we?" She mumbled incoherently.

"Nepal."

"Oh! Yeah!" She sat bolt upright, accidentally whipping her long hair into Drake's face. "Oops, sorry."

"It's okay." Drake stood and stretched. Matt walked through the door to the cockpit.

"We're here, for anyone who's still sleeping." He said. No one was. "Good, everyone's ready then? We'll need to stop and get a few things for those of us who still have bodies that can freeze, then we can start on the mountain. I would guess that William probably knows we're coming, so expect some resistance. However, a couple of my scouts confirmed that this area is by-and-large inhabited by fiend-possessed humans. They have no combat ability beyond what a normal human would have, and all are unarmed. However, there may be a few who are capable of dueling around here, so beware of that. Otherwise, just stay on your toes, shoot every fiend you see, as there may be some here and there, and don't attract too much attention. None of these fiend-possessedes are all that bright."

"That all?" said Keith.

"Would I stop if there was more?"

"Maybe." Flynn said, standing up. "All right, let's go." He opened the cabin door, dropped the stairs, and climbed down. Keith and Helen were right behind him. Drake helped Julie out of her seat, she was still a little groggy.

"You feeling up to this?" He asked.

"Of course. Stop asking that, Drake. You treat me like something fragile that could break at any moment. I don't like that." She said, looking at him in the sternest way she could muster.

"Sorry… I just worry about you." Drake said. Julie sighed.

"I know… but still, it's kind of irritating. I think I've proven that I'm okay with all of this. None of that… stuff is going to distract me." She said. Drake nodded.

"Hey! We know you guys like each other, but could you please keep the heart-to-heart talking to a minimum?" Flynn shouted back through the doorway.

"Let's go." Drake said quietly. Julie nodded and followed him out the door.

"They join us at last." Matt said. "There's a hiking shop- more accurately 'stockpile' as we're not actually going to be buying anything there- straight down the street from here. Of course, it looks like there's a parade going across the street. We'll just have to persuade them to move."

"How are we going to do that?" Julie asked.

"Make them an offer they can't refuse." Matt said. He began to walk down the street, leaving Julie looking very confused.

"What does that mean?" She said.

"It has violent implications." Helen said. "In other words, tell them they either move or you shoot them." She set off after Matt.

"Ah!" Julie said. "I get it." She started following Matt, with Drake right behind her. Sure enough, a few yards farther down the street there was a virtually unmoving line of fiend-possessed humans. Matt was crouched next to a building, swirling something blue around in his hands.

"What's that?" Drake asked.

"A spirit bomb." Matt said. "I'm going to blow a hole in that line, and you guys are going to rush through in the chaos that ensues. As a result of the infestation of the human shell, the reactions and stuff are a little slower than normal. Don't worry about me. I'll get though in my own time. Ready?" No one dissented. Matt stood, holding the huge swirling mass of blue at arm's length. The sphere was so large that it was still almost touching Matt's face.

"I'm surprised that the fiends don't notice that." Keith said. Matt grinned and launched the sphere at the center of the huge line. There was a massive explosion, throwing human bodies everywhere. Drake ran into the chaos, praying to God that he didn't get hit by some debris that was just landing.

There was smoke hanging everywhere, clouds of dust that filled Drake's lungs when he tried to take a breath. The dust stung his eyes. He ran into something or someone and staggered away in the other direction. It was hard to breathe, he couldn't see. He ran into something large and hard, turned away, and began to walk in another direction. He couldn't force any more air into his lungs. It was getting hard to balance.

_What's going on?!?_ Drake thought. _What happened? Was I… not cautious enough? Should I have entered this like it was water? Oh, no…_ He fell over. He couldn't open his eyes, it hurt too much. Breathing took every bit of his existence to do. A huge cloud of smog entered his mouth and he began to cough hard. No air was getting to his lungs- nothing useful anyway. His already limited vision began to fade out.

_No… this can't be… how could I…_ Something picked him up around the waste and whisked him out of the cloud, hitting him on the back as they moved. The smoke cleared from his throat, Drake relaxed. His carrier set him down against a wall.

"You okay? What happened?" Flynn's voice asked.

"Get smoke in my mouth… dust in my eyes… couldn't see… couldn't breathe." Drake said, with effort. Someone forced his eye open. "Ow! Don't do that!" Something cool and slippery hit his eye a few times, flushing the dust out.

"You need to get this stuff out of your eyes so you can see again." Julie said. "And you were worried about me." She forced his other eye open and put a few drops of whatever it was she was using into his eye. The dust flushed out, Drake blinked a few times and looked back at the cloud of smoke. Matt had just emerged from it.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I got stuff in my lungs and eyes." Drake said. Matt hit himself in the forehead.

"I forgot that you have to blink and breathe still." Matt said. "Sorry about that, I should have warned you."

"How can you forget about that?" Keith asked.

"As I don't have to, it's pretty easy." Matt said.

"That's sort of creepy." Helen said. "Is this the place?" She gestured at a store.

"Yeah, that's it. Go in. I'll stay here in case we have unwanted guests."

Drake stood with some help from Julie and entered the shop. A bell rang somewhere in the depths of the darkness. There were racks of stuff everywhere, completely untouched, it seemed, since the fiends had entered the world. Flynn moved toward a rack and touched a length of rope. As soon as he did, a massive black shape fell from the ceiling and landed on him.

"Curse you for breathing, you monsters!" it shouted. In a quick motion, Flynn flipped the shape over his shoulder and whipped out his rifle, pointing it at the portly man laying on the ground.

"You're not one of those beasts." He said.

"No. Who are you?" Flynn said.

"I own this shop… or what's left of it." The man said. "What are you doing here?"

"We're going to put a stop to this invasion."

The man laughed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look like anyone who could have a chance at it."

Matt stepped through the wall of the shop. "Is there a problem? I heard noise." He noticed the man on the floor. "Ah, the owner lives. If he wants money, here you go." Matt tossed a packet of bills that became solid in midair to Helen. "That should cover it." Matt left through the wall again. The shop owner looked at his leaving form disbelievingly.

"What is that thing?" He said.

"He was a human once." Keith said. "Now he's just kind of… a collection of spirits that want revenge on the fiends for killing him."

The store owner shivered. "He creeps me out."

"He has that effect on a lot of people." Helen said.

The store owner stood up. "Take anything you want. I'm going to get as far away from that guy as I can." He left through a back door. Flynn shrugged.

"That was easy, now grab everything you might need. It's gonna be a real long trip." Flynn took the coil of rope he had reached for earlier and began to peruse the shop. Drake grabbed a new coat to replace the one he had left behind and waited near the entrance. No one took longer than five minutes.

"Good, you didn't take too long." Matt said.

"Why do you care? You have limitless stamina and time, so long as those fiends don't go away." Drake said.

"But not limitless patience, I'm afraid." He replied. "Let's go. This could take a while to do." He lead them into the Himalayas.

"Where exactly is this hidden base of William's?" Julie shouted through the howling winds.

"About halfway up the mountain." Flynn said. "Very hard to get to, but not incredibly impractical. If you go too high up there's not enough air."

"This is it." Matt said, standing at the base of a towering monolith of stone and looking up. "Quite big, isn't it?"

"I think you're understating things a bit." Helen said. "It's huge! How are we supposed to scale it?"

"By using the convenient path?" Julie suggested. "Someone cut a crude stairway into these stones…" Matt stepped onto the staircase and began to climb it, indicating the others to wait.

"Seems stable." He said. "Let's go, but don't get used to this."

Up, up, up they went. Drake lost count after a few hundred steps because his head hurt from the slowly dwindling oxygen supply. Suddenly Matt stopped.

"Wouldn't have wanted to fall off of that." He said, peering over the edge of the stairs. "Looks like we have to climb from here."

"At least up to that plateau there." Flynn said, squinting through the snow. He pulled out his rope and grappling hook and began to swing it around.

"Careful!" Helen said, backing up a little to avoid the sharp ends of the hook. She backed into Julie, who was pushed to the edge of the stairway, barely able to maintain her balance on the edge. Drake reached out a desperate hand to try and pull her back, but it passed within inches of hers as she fell backwards over the edge.

Matt, in another desperate attempt, swung off the edge of the cliff, holding on with just one hand. He caught Julie's hand in his other, but gravity would not have any of his heroics.

"Oh, bugger." Matt said as the cliff beneath his fingers crumbled and he was pulled down with Julie. Helen dropped flat and reached out to try and grab him, trying to make up for the problem she had created, but she missed completely. Everyone could only watch as they both plummeted out of sight into the now-raging snow.

"Oh, no…" Helen said. "Oh, God, no…"

"That's not good…" Keith said. "This is not good at all…"

"Not good?!? This is really, really bad!" Flynn said. "We just lost the two most important people in the group! And it's your fault!" He turned on Helen.

"Calm down Flynn!" Keith said, stepping in between Helen and Flynn and making an effort to stop Flynn from getting closer to her. "This isn't helping!"

"I don't care! She may have apologized to everyone, but that isn't enough for me! She's been little but trouble since the first moment we picked her up! And now she just sent our hopes plummeting off a cliff to their deaths! She should join them!" He began to slowly push Keith back in his efforts to get at Helen. Drake get next to Keith and drove an elbow into Flynn's stomach, stunning him momentarily. Helen kept staring over the cliff, her hand stretched out as though she was trying to grab something just out of her reach. Drake turned to Keith.

"Now what are we going to do?" Drake asked.

"We need to rest a little." Keith said. "I noticed a cave a few steps down, we can hole up there. This storm's getting really bad. There's no way we can go looking for anything in this, either them or friend William's secret base. I'll try to keep Flynn down… he's pretty frustrated with Helen, and now that one of her actions has resulted in the almost certain death of one of our friends, he's going to be murderous for some time." Drake nodded and got down next to Helen.

"Come on." He said. "We're going somewhere else."

"We need to find them… we need to go looking for them…" she kept saying.

"We can't in this. We'll freeze to death." Drake said.

"I know, but… it's my fault. It's all my fault… they're dead… it's my fault… it's all my fault…"

Drake didn't know what to say, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. She didn't resist, but she continued to stare off the cliff at the point where Matt and Julie had vanished, and she kept saying that it was her fault. Drake lead her down the steps to the cave Keith had mentioned. She kept staring blankly in the same direction, even once Drake had sat her down and left to find Flynn and Keith.

He could hear them bickering from the cave entrance. He couldn't make out a word over the snowstorm, but he was sure that if they didn't stop soon, they would bring every fiend on the mountain down to them. He ran up the stairs and skidded to a stop a foot from where they stood, glaring at each other.

"Guys… we need to get out of this before we freeze to death." Drake said. "This snow is getting worse…"

"It is." Flynn said, not looking away from Keith. "But I'm not going to stay anywhere were that bit of trouble is."

"That was an accident!" Drake said, getting angry. "And it was as much her fault as it was yours!" This made Flynn turn on Drake.

"What do you mean it was my fault too?!? I didn't make her back up into Julie and knock her off the cliff!"

"Actually, you were swinging around that hook and almost hit her with it." Keith said.

"It wasn't anywhere near her!"

_This is getting ugly,_ Drake thought. "We all need to calm down… this is getting us nowhere fast, except perhaps backwards."

" 'Calm down'?!? 'Calm down'?!? There's nothing to be calm about!!! We've lost 33 of our group, and the most important two to boot! If stuff like this keeps happening, we're going to fail miserably at this!" Flynn said.

"They'll be okay, I think." Keith said. "Or at least, Matt will be…"

"That's not what I'm worried about! Without Julie, what are we going to do about they key? What are we going to do about anything concerning that?" Flynn said.

"We'll have to go looking for them later, once this storm goes away." Drake said. "If they survived…"

"How can you survive that kind of fall?!?" Flynn said. "I mean, Matt could because he's not even alive, but Julie… I can't see how she could!"

"We need to relax a little, in any case." Keith said. "Let's go."

"Not if Helen's in there." Flynn said. "I've had enough of her."

"Oh, stop it." Drake said. "She didn't mean it. You're being far too harsh on her."

"She's getting everything she deserves." Flynn said. "And she probably deserves more, for all the trouble she's been giving us. She was mean from the beginning. She deserves every bit of contempt I give her."

"She stopped that long ago." Keith said.

"I don't care! She just did something else that's so bad I can't forgive her for it, even if it was an accident. She could have been more careful." Flynn said.

"This is getting nowhere." Drake said. "I'm getting out of here. I can't feel my face anymore." Drake turned around and began back down the stairs to the cave. Helen was still seated in the cave, mouthing silently. Drake lay down on the opposite side of the cave, facing the entrance. After a while, Keith came in, carrying a bundle that he set down in the middle of the cave. He pulled out a lighter and set the bundle on fire.

"That should make things a little more comfortable in here." He said, pulling a sleeping bag out of the backpack he had been carrying. He pulled out a couple cans and a pan as well. "I figured we might need to stop." He opened the cans and poured the contents into the pan, then set the pan on the fire. "It should be ready in about ten minutes."

Flynn appeared at the cave entrance. "Who's cooking what?" Keith smiled smugly. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Keith nodded. "I hate you." Flynn sat down next to the fire. Drake got up and moved toward the fire. Helen remained motionless.

"So what are we going to do next?" Flynn said. "Do we press onward, or cling to some slim hope of their survival and go look for them?"

"Go looking for them." Helen said, still staring off into space. "Need to find them. It's my fault. I pushed her off… I need to find them. They need to be alive…"

"Any other opinions?" Flynn said, with a disgusted glance at Helen.

"They'll be alive." Drake said, though he wasn't entirely convinced himself. "We should go find them instead of leaving behind."

"I agree." Keith said.

Flynn sighed. "Fine. We'll go looking after this subsides. I don't think we'll find anything, but there's no chance of just us doing anything substantial."


	30. The Second Climb

Chapter 30- The Second Climb

Julie was exhausted from the climb, so she really wasn't paying attention as she got over the last step to the plateau that everyone else was standing on. The long period of time she had been separated from her body seemed to have sapped her physical abilities. She was about to bend over to catch her breath when she felt Helen bump into her. Normally such as weak force wouldn't have moved her much, but given her weakened physical state, it felt like Helen had walked into her at full speed rather than just bumping her by accident.

The force threw off her already screwed up equilibrium, pushing her to the edge of the cliff. Her heels hung off the edge as she tried desperately to regain her balance on the mountain. Finally, her balance completely went and she fell backwards off the cliff, slowly rotating backwards.

She saw Drake reach out and try to grab her, and she reached out toward him, but his fingertips just barely managed to brush against hers. Matt, acting like his usual stupid heroic self, swung himself down from the cliff and grabbed her hand.

For a moment she stopped falling, but then the cliff underneath Matt's fingers crumbled under the excessive strength he had used to stop the fall. And so the falling continued, but now she was bringing Matt with her.

_No!_ She thought. _I didn't…! I just deprived them of Matt! I'm going to die… and now there's no Matt with them either!_

"Oh bugger." She heard Matt say as he followed her. She felt the wind whipping past her face, the snow all around her, her hair blocking her vision as she fell. She had begun to spontaneously squeeze excessively hard on Matt's ghostly hand. She still hadn't screamed.

"Let go." Matt shouted down to her. She released her grip and noticed that she had left red marks on his hand and had even cut into his hand in some places. He altered his grip slightly, reached out his other hand, and griped her arm just below his first hand. He pulled her up so that she was now just above him, her back toward him and his back toward the ground. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the ground coming up fast. There were several large, sharp-looking rocks sticking up toward them.

"We're going to hit those and die!" She shouted.

"Maybe." Matt said. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. He grabbed the edge of his cloak with his free hand and pulled it out. The extra air resistance pushed them over the Julie's right, away from the rocks. "But not if I can do something about it."

"We're still going to hit the ground and die." Julie said.

"Nah." Matt said. "There's snow down there, though it's not enough to break our fall by itself. I'll break you fall."

"But what about you?!?"

"Trust me."

They were hardly ten feet from the ground. Julie felt snow being pushed out of the way as they hit the drift below them, compacting beneath the force of their falling bodies. Suddenly the snow would flatten no more, and they were brought to an abrupt halt. Julie heard the sickening sound of Matt's body being crushed underneath hers as they hit the solid ground beneath the snow.

Julie's head snapped back, straining her neck incredibly and making her think for a moment that she had torn the muscles in it. But she was still able to lift her head and look around, assuring her that all her muscles were still on one piece. Her back hurt like hell, as did everything that had hit the ground. But she was still in one piece, and miraculously alive.

She stood up. The snow was up to top of her knees. Matt was laying at the bottom of the person-shaped indentation she had climbed out of. He had been flattened by the impact, the snow around him slowly turning a ghastly red.

_Oh no…_ Julie thought, a tear leaking out of her eye. "Oh, no… it's my fault." Tears began to stream down her face. "It's… my fault…" She continued to stare at the body.

Suddenly the red underneath Julie's feet began to move back toward the body. As it did, Matt's body seemed to inflate. The red completely disappeared into him, and he sat up. Matt twisted his head in both directions. Julie heard the bones of his neck crack. He shook his head and sat up.

"Wow, that was a funky feeling." He said.

"You're alive!" Julie screamed in his ear, and squeezed him. He cringed a little at the sound. "But… how?" She let go of him.

"Well, technically I'm not alive, but I'm not dead either. I will never die… nor can I remain injured while in this state. Are you okay?"

"That hurt a little, but nothing too bad. Didn't that hurt?" She said, relieved.

"Not really. I slowed the landing a little by projecting a field of spirits beneath us, so that's probably why you didn't get hurt so bad." Matt stood up and jumped onto the top of the snow. "Let's go. We need to get back to the others before something bad happens."

"Aha! Found yous!" shouted a voice from behind Julie. Julie heard the heavy clomping of fiend steps and turned around. A larger-than-average, yet still not massive, fiend with a sword was charging at Matt. Matt stood and watched without moving a muscle as the fiend neared him.

"What are you doing?!?" Julie shouted.

"Watch, this'll be funny." Matt said. The fiend was getting closer, and still Matt did nothing. Julie was nearly panicking now. If he didn't do something, the fiend would stab him, and…

The fiend reached Matt, ran the sword through Matt's stomach, and began to laugh as he did so. Matt didn't even flinch. In fact, he looked like he couldn't care less. He sighed, looking off to the side and shaking his head. The fiend let go of the sword and backed away, no longer smug. Matt pulled out the sword, turned it around, and ran it through the fiend's face. The fiend was instantly dead.

"Told you that that would be funny." Matt said, ripping the sword out and tossing it off to the side.

"Actually, I found it kind of scary." Julie said. "I thought for a moment-"

"Again, I reiterate, I cannot really die." Matt said.

"I'm sorry for worrying so much…"

"Don't be. People who are too sorry really irritate me. Take Ashley for example. She's way too sorry all the time. It irritates me."

"Then why do you let her hang around?"

Matt thought about this. "Hm… don't know. She's really, really strong in combat, and I need someone like her around because I'm too rash and get myself hurt a lot. And… there are some other reasons too."

"Like?" Julie asked.

Matt opened his mouth but was cut off by someone else shouting. "Aha! We've found her!"

Julie spun around to meet the new threat. An army of fiends and fiend-possessed humans was spread out behind them, outfitted with the newest technology. The fiends were marching toward them.

"What are we going to do about this?" Julie asked Matt in a hushed tone.

"Don't know. Somehow." Matt said, stretching his arms out in front of him. "Stay behind me. I'll…"

"Stop ignoring me." Came a voice from behind the fiends.

"Ha! And who are you that we should not ignore you?" said the head fiend, not looking behind him.

"Chuck Norris."

"Yeah, right." The entire fiend army turned and parted so that the lead fiend could see the guy who was following them. The leader turned and gasped. "CHUCK!"

Chuck Norris ran forward and roundhouse kicked a bunch of fiends at the speed of Chuck Norris. Several of the fiends nearest him began to shoot at him. They all missed. Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked his way through the fiends to the leader, then stared him down with one of the world's deadliest stares.

"Don't kill me!" The fiend said. Chuck seemed to consider this for a moment.

"No." He said, and roundhouse kicked the fiend, snapping off its head.

"Thanks Chuck." Matt said.

"No problem." Chuck said, and walked away.

"That was weird." Julie said. "Where did Chuck Norris come from?"

"Who knows." Matt said. "He's Chuck Norris, his combat skill is as good as my own. Well, it would be if I didn't have all these special powers. He's still pretty close to my skill."

"Wow." Julie realized that she was getting cold. "I'm getting cold. Can we go somewhere?"

"Yeah, we can. There's a storm coming down our way. We- or rather you- need to find somewhere to crash until it lets up. You need some more time to regain your coordination and stuff anyway." Matt said.

"How did you know about that?"

"Do you think I don't notice you taking every step very carefully?" He asked. "You look like a drunk walking around, except without the vacant facial expression." Julie tugged her coat tighter around her and took a step forward. She lost her balance and fell facedown into the snow. Matt grabbed her by the collar, lifted her out of the snow, and set her on her feet.

"Yeah, I guess I am pretty off right now." She said, gripping Matt's shoulder and taking a step forward. She almost fell over again, but Matt steadied her.

_This snow is really messing with my balance, _she thought. She took another unsteady step. "This sucks."

"Try dying." Matt suggested. "That really messes up your sense of anything humans have a sense of. Balance, distance, speed, time…"

Julie laughed. "Yeah, I guess it would. Can you…?"

"Help you? Yeah. Will I? Possibly." Matt put a hand on each side of Julie's waist and hoisted her up so that she was seated on his left shoulder. "That good?"

"Doesn't it hurt? I mean, I'm not fat or anything, but I'm not really light either." She said.

"Nonsense! Actually, you're one of the skinniest girls your age I've seen. Usually it's about your age that most start getting fat and worrying about their figure. You're quite light."

"Are you just being nice with that?"

"Julie, if you think I would lie just to be nice, you really don't know me particularly well. But it's true, so I have to say it. Besides, I've lifted much heavier things than you. But I'll tell you this: you must be working out or something, because you're a bit heavier than you look."

Julie blushed a little. "Yeah, I have… but not because I was worried about my fitness, really."

"Ah, trying to impress dear Drake eh?" Matt said.

"Not really…"

Matt glanced up at her. "I'm pretty sure I know what you're thinking, and if you are, then I hope you reconsider the first idea I put forth."

Julie remained silent as Matt walked closer to the mountain. "Where are we going?" She finally asked.

"Closer to the base. I noticed a cave there earlier." He said. "In fact… we're going too slow."

"Can't you go faster?" She asked.

"Not with you sitting like that." He said, lifting her up off his shoulder and throwing her legs behind his back. "Hold onto my neck, as hard as you like, I don't have to breathe anyway." Julie wrapped her arms around Matt's neck and squeezed hard. He didn't seem to notice.

Matt put an arm under each of her legs at her knee and pulled her legs around him. "Now, it's going to get a little hot, because the speed we're about to travel creates a lot of friction between us and the air. Are you ready?"

Julie squeezed a little harder. "I just hope I don't fall off."

"Don't worry, I won't let you. If you need me to slow down, just tell me." He said. Julie nodded. "Don't look back." He said, and took off. The speed was incredible, at least to Julie- Matt was running across the top of the snow, so fast that he didn't sink in like a normal person. Julie could feel the air whipping past and the heat the immense friction was generating. Her hands were slipping because she had begun to sweat from the heat. She tried to squeeze harder when Matt stopped.

"You okay?"

"Yeah… but I think I left my stomach way back there." She said. Matt laughed.

"You get used to it after a while, but I doubt you'll ever be able to move that fast. I can break the sound barrier if I want to."

"That's outrageous."

"Fairly." He let go and Julie slid down from the insane piggyback ride. She almost fell over again, her legs felt like Jell-O. "You okay?"

"Yeah… getting off after that was like getting off an incredibly cool roller coaster." She said.

"Forgotten what that's like." Matt said. "Haven't been on that for a long time." He gestured to the gaping black mouth in front of them. "Ladies first." Julie took a few slow steps and entered the cave.

It was pitch black inside but mercifully warmer and less windy. The snow only reached a few inches inside and reflected a little light. Matt walked in behind her holding a ball of fire in his hand.

"Yeah, this is good." He said. "Nothing living in here, I hope." He raised the fire and cast its light around the empty corners of the cave. "Good." He moved to the middle of the room and let the fire roll out of his hand onto the ground. It continued to burn but changed to a bluish color.

"Is that natural?" Julie asked.

"Of course not." Matt said. "Now get some rest. You really need it."

"What if-"

"Nothing's going to get in here. I won't let it."

"But don't you need to-"

"Sleep? No. I'm not living. I don't even need to breathe, what made you think I would need sleep?"

"I don't know." Julie admitted, laying down next to the fire. "I could use something soft to lay on, though." Matt pulled a roll of fabric out of his cloak.

"This should do." He said, tossing it to her. "Unroll it and pull the tab." He walked away and sat at the entrance to the cave, on the edge of the snow. Julie quickly unrolled the fabric and pulled the tab at the other end. The thing instantly sprang out into a full mattress and pillow with two sheets.

_Where does he get this stuff?_ Julie thought, sliding in under the sheet. _Oh well._ She lay down and was asleep in seconds.


	31. Back Down the Mountain

Chapter 31- Back Down the Mountain

Keith's stew was done and cold by the time the storm had let up (not that there was much left of it) to a degree that they could return to the bottom to see if they could find any bit of Matt and Julie. Drake was still willing to search, but the length of the storm had lessened his hopes of finding the other two.

Flynn had gulped down a bowl of Keith's concoction and then moved as far away from Helen as he could get without leaving the safety of the cave. Drake couldn't understand what Flynn had against Helen. She had been meanest to Drake, and he had no problem with her now. The most recent incident had been a complete accident and partially his fault. Maybe he was frustrated with himself. In any case it couldn't go on. His grudge was holding the group back.

Flynn now stood up and addressed them. "Gentlemen- and woman- I think it's time we got going."

"The sooner the better." Drake said. "I hope they're still alive."

"I don't know how they could have survived that fall," Keith said. "But if they did, at least one of them is probably really badly injured and the other couldn't leave them alone. I sure hope the storm didn't come down there, because if it did, it would be hard for both of them to stay alive."

"You mean Julie." Drake said.

"Well, uh, yeah."

"Then say what you mean! It irritates me when people talk around what they mean."

"Okay then! It's unlikely that Matt got hurt at all. In fact, I highly doubt he even felt the fall. However, the chances of Julie surviving the impact are incredibly low and I'd bet any amount against on her chance of survival."

"Bet you five bucks that they both survived."

"I'll call."

"This is no time for that." Flynn said. "We're wasting time, in my opinion, by even going looking for them. If we stay here, the storm might pick up again and then we'll waste more time. And I don't like wasting time, particularly when the fate of the world is at stake."

"Fine then, let's go." Keith said, and stepped out of the cave. "If you don't want to waste time…" Flynn followed him, adjusting his rifle's shoulder strap as he went. Helen followed him like a zombie, still not completely focused on what was going on around her. Drake hit her on the back of the head as they left the cave.

"Snap out of it." He said. She didn't react. Drake sighed. _She needs to hurry up and get back with it or it's going to be much more difficult to get out of this alive…_ He stepped past the slow moving Helen.

They went back down the way they came- except this time the journey was much slower because the crude stairs were covered in snow and much harder to see. They had to take things really slowly if they wanted to avoid slipping off, as Flynn almost did about twenty steps from the cave. By the time they reached a small plateau on the mountainside, they had had several more similar incidents and were exhausted. And to top it all off, the wind had picked up.

"There has got to be an easier way." Keith said, flopping down into the snow. "I'm getting sick of all of this moving around."

"Then get into some decent shape." Flynn said. "And get up out of the snow, you'll get frostbitten."

"I knew that." Keith said, standing up slowly and painfully.

"Drake leaned against the mountainside. "This is taking too long. Why did it have to be Everest? Why couldn't it have been somewhere scenic and easy-to-get-to? Like in the Bahamas? Or even France?"

"Why would you ever want to go to France?" Flynn said. "I've been there, the people there are- oh, yeah. No people."

"Speaking of no people, where's Helen?" Keith said.

"We probably lost her somewhere on the mountainside, or she's so distraught that she killed herself, which I wouldn't doubt given the way she's acting." Flynn said. "High cliffs seem inviting for people who want to kill themselves."

"That's a horrible thought!" Drake said. "And if you know how distraught she's feeling, why then do you treat her so roughly?"

"Because distraught people are no use to me!" Flynn said. "We're in enemy territory, if you have someone with you who is so out of it that they can't fight at moment's notice, they endanger everyone else! Besides, I'm still not sure that she's been completely honest with her apologies-"

"Oh, come ON." Keith said. "Matt trusts her."

"Matt isn't completely infallible." Flynn said. "Do you honestly completely trust him, after all the danger he's put us through?"

"Well, I-"

"Did we actually come here by our own free will? He chose us. He's forced us through this, or at least that's what it's felt like."

"Who's the dead man right now?" Drake asked quietly.

"Just more proof that he's not infallible."

"Oh, stop being such an ass." Keith said. "Look, we've trusted Matt through all of this, and he's gotten us mostly through it."

"You died." Flynn informed him.

"Matt wasn't there at the time, remember? But have any of us ever died with Matt around?"

"We've only been severely injured, so what? He disappears so much that that's not much comfort."

"Well, he, uh, that is to say, oh, damn it, stop tearing this up! You're making this harder than it has to be!"

At this moment, Helen appeared on the steps to Drake's right.

"What are we yelling about now?" She said.

"Matt's integrity, or something along those lines." Keith said.

"Okay, I don't want to keep going like this." Drake said. "So, Flynn, here's my deal. If we find nothing at the bottom of this mountain- and just Matt counts as nothing- then we don't have to do this any more. We can give up, if you'd like. But if we find them both, you can never question Matt again. Or Helen, for that matter."

"Why should I accept this?" Flynn said.

Drake raised his rifle. "Because I'll shoot you if you don't. The time we're wasting here is lessening my chance of finding them alive, and they are two of the most important people in my entire life. I'm losing it pretty quickly here."

"I have no use for people who are losing their minds enough to contemplate shooting me." Flynn said, whipped out a pistol at blinding speed, and shot at Drake.

Drake didn't have time to react. He instinctively put up his arms to try and defend himself, fully knowing that it would do no good. If Flynn was accurate, and Drake knew he was, there was nothing Drake could do to stop him. Drake could have sworn he could see the bullet coming toward him, twisting in midair and pushing air out of the way.

And suddenly there was something between him and the bullet. Helen had literally thrown herself between Flynn and Drake, in a desperate attempt at saving Drake that seemed to have no motivation except for the possibility that Helen felt herself worthless after all she had done.

Fortunately for Helen, the bullet was off the mark. Thanks to the gusting winds, the bullet had been pushed off course. Instead of hitting her dead in the heart, where it would have had there been no wind, it went off course and hit her in the elbow.

That is not to say that the damage was negligible. Drake heard something snap and felt the bullet fly by his ear, missing him by a few inches. Helen flopped limply into the snow as blood poured out of her arm. Keith rushed behind Flynn, wrenched the gun from his hand after a few seconds of fighting him for it, and put him into a full nelson.

"Calm down, Flynn!" Keith said, struggling to maintain his grip. "This is not helping!"

"He was going to shoot me! What am I supposed to do?!?" Flynn said, fighting Keith's nelson.

"Not something that would make us even more unlikely to survive this!"

Drake ran to the crippled Helen, who was still lying bleeding in the snow. "Are you okay?!? Are you okay?!?" He shouted at her, and shook her a little.

"Besides the intense pain and feeling that I'm missing something in my right elbow, yes. Otherwise, no." She said, gritting her teeth and gripping her elbow.

"Let me look at that." Drake said, trying to peel her fingers off. Helen let out a hiss and slowly removed them.

There was a hole straight through her elbow, clear enough that Drake could see the snow on the other side. Fragments of white were sticking out into the hole and clinging to the sides, obviously all that was left of Helen's elbow joint. Some of the veins and arteries that had once run through her elbow now hung out the other side, torn apart by the shot.

"Oh, God… this is really bad… can you move it?" Drake asked. Helen shook her head, gritting her teeth.

"It hurts… it hurts…" she groaned. Drake touched her lower arm and pushed it up toward her body slightly. Helen screamed from the pain.

"Sorry… but you don't want it hanging like this." Drake said.

"I know, I know… just push it up across my stomach…" She said. "Go ahead." Drake delicately lifted Helen's dead arm up off the ground and moved her forearm up and across her body. Helen's face turned red from the suppressed shout of pain, but she didn't make a sound. Drake pulled a couple of straps off the back of his coat (he had no idea why they were there, anyway… probably to hold something that he wouldn't need) and did his best to secure Helen's busted arm. Flynn and Keith were still shouting at each other. Keith was still struggling to keep Flynn in the full nelson.

"How's that?" Drake asked. Helen pushed herself up with her other arm.

"It's okay… but it still hurts a lot." She said. "I need to get it cleaned out and covered before it gets infected."

"Julie had all the medical stuff." Drake said. "And even if she survived, I doubt the medical stuff did."

"Well, well, well, would you look at this." Came a horribly familiar voice. Drake jumped up and turned around to see a fiend marching toward them. "So, this is what became of the already pathetic team that thought they could defeat us? Bickering and shooting each other? How sad."

"You act like you know us." Drake said, facing the fiend and raising his duel disk in a self-defensive sort of way.

"I do. Remember? We met on Hawaii."

"Oh, yes." Drake said, quickly remembering the four-on-four duel that had taken place on Hawaii. That had to be one of his least favorite shadow games. "Back for another beating?"

"Not the way you guys are looking!" The fiend said. "I'm going to challenge each of you to a duel, and one by one steal your soul for the master! In minutes, our team will retrieve the remains of the foolish girl who traveled with you and fell off the cliff. After that, nothing will stand in our way of opening the sixth gate and releasing our true master!"

"Not if I can help it." Drake said. "Come on, loser, let's duel."

"Fine! You'll make for a nice warm-up."

"Let's duel!"

Drake: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I'll start off!" Drake said, drawing a card. _Took me long enough to draw that guy! Never drawn him before… but now isn't the time._ "I'll start off by setting one monster in defense mode, along with a facedown card."

"Fine then!" The fiend drew. "I summon the mighty Giant Red Seasnake (Water/Sea Serpent, 1800/800) in attack mode! With him out, your monster is as good as dead! Go, Seasnake, attack his monster!"

"That was my Magician's Valkyria (Light/Spellcaster/Effect, 1600/1800)." Drake said as his female magician reflected the attack. "So the attack from your 'mighty' monster is worthless."

"Be smug while you can." The fiend said. "I place a card facedown and end my turn."

"Well, that was a mediocre start." Drake said. He drew a card. _I feel so lazy… what's with that? Usually when I duel, I get all excited… but not anymore. This dueling with our lives at stake thing is really sapping all the fun out of it. And naught but defensive monsters and non-useful spells to boot! That doesn't help for a grand assault. _"I suppose I will just set a monster in defense mode, set a card, and end my turn."

"Hmph. You're such a loser, not even one monster that can even match my snake?" The fiend drew a card.

"It's just not in the cards right now." Drake said.

"Good! Because now I sacrifice my snake to summon Mobius the Frost Monarch (Water/Aqua/Effect, 2400/1000) in attack mode! You should be feeling the chill he generates pretty soon too, because when he is tribute summoned, he destroys up to two spell of trap cards on the field!"

"No!" Drake said. "That was the best thing I had to defend me…"

"Yes, and now that it's gone, I'll play Fairy Meteor Crush and equip it to Mobius! While he has this card on him, he can tear through your defensive monsters as if they were in attack mode! Mobius the Frost Monarch, kill his magician and take a chunk out of his life points!"

Drake: 3400 Fiend: 4000 

As Mobius' attack ripped through his Magician's body and hit him, Drake felt colder near his feet. He looked down and noticed that they were encased in ice. "Okay, I know that's not normal… what are you doing?!?" He shouted at the fiend.

"Ah, I see that you are once again the first to see the effects of another Shadow Game. If you will recall for a moment, during the Battle City tournament, allegedly the Kaiba Corp. blimp that was carrying the contestants landed on a ship in the middle of the ocean en route. There, several of the contestants were supposedly sent to a virtual world created by the Big 5, the former head of Kaiba Corp. There, the five tried to take control of the contestants bodies as they had lost their own. In one of the many duels that are supposed to have occurred there was one involving one Big 2 Crump and another Tea Gardener, during which the loser was sentenced to be encased in a virtual block of ice for all eternity when their life points ran out. So, in this duel, we will have the same game going! Have fun being frozen for eternity! AHAHAHAHA!!!"

"Great." Drake said, losing the feeling in his feet. _Especially with no end in sight for old Mobius. This is going to be really rough…_


	32. Beginning the Climb Anew

Chapter 32- Beginning the Climb Anew

Julie woke up stiffened from sleeping on the cold ground. Matt was sitting in the cave's entryway, surrounded by dissolving corpses, and with thousands of arms and legs slowly retracting into him.

"What happened?" Julie asked groggily. "Why are there bodies everywhere?"

"Because fiends attacked while you were sleeping." Matt said, calmly standing. "There were quite a few. Now let's get going."

"But don't you need to rest a little after that?" Julie asked.

"No. Did you forget or something? I'm not really alive. Are you fine, though?"

"Yeah, but I'm a little stiff."

"That's okay. It'll go away once we start moving." He turned back toward the entrance and punched at thin air. A fist shot out of his and smashed through a fiend a few yards away. "See? Nothing to it."

Julie laughed. "Just don't do it to me." She stepped past him and over the dissolving corpses. She accidentally stepped in one only to have it vanish underneath her foot. "Ew… wait, what happened?"

"The fiend corpses are highly bio-degradable. They take about thirty seconds to completely dissolve, once they're dead. Otherwise, what would we do with all the deceased fiends? Remember, they just keep coming back."

"Yeah, that might lead to a lot of excess matter." Julie said. "We'd have to ship it off into deep space or something."

"Mmhmm." Matt stepped to the base of the crude stairs they had started the climb on earlier. "Let's get going. I'm sure Drake misses you."

Julie wouldn't tell him, but she missed Drake too. "Yeah, I'll bet he does. Let's just hope they don't tear each other apart while we're not there."

"That would be bad." Matt said, placing his foot on the first step and leaning up against the mountainside. "You first." Julie stepped onto the cliff and began to ascend the mountain.

Her coat had gotten snow in it from the fall off the cliff, and now it was wet. The worst part was that it was still snowing. Though it wasn't as heavy as earlier, it still got into her coat collar and made her cold, wet, and very uncomfortable.

"My incredible amount of perceptive ability informs me that you are a bit chilly." Matt said after a couple hundred steps.

"N-no! W-w-what g-g-gave it away?" Julie said, exasperated and shivering.

"The shivering."

"Why didn't you pick this up earlier?!?"

"Why didn't you ask for my help with it earlier?"

"Uh…" This stumped Julie. The truth was, she really didn't want help.

Matt shook his head and procured a white cloak out of nowhere and held it out to her. "Take it and give me your other coat."

Julie pulled off the wet coat and for a moment felt the biting wind against her unprotected forearms. _If I ever come back to a place like this, I'm definitely wearing at least three layers._ She pulled the white cloak on and felt instantly warmed. It was as if someone had lit a fire inside her that warmed her very being, even lifting the depression she had felt moments before in the cold. She suddenly recalled some of her fondest memories.

"What is this cloak?" She asked.

"It's Good Matt's. Don't get it black, or he'll get irked."

"He can get irked?"

"He doesn't like his cloak getting dirty. Don't worry though, it's actually quite dirt resistant. Just don't take it and drag it through mud, and you should be fine."

"It's really warm." Julie said, pulling it up around her face.

"It's a bizarre thing." Matt took a few more steps up the mountain. "How warm that cloak can be is a function of how many happy memories the person wearing it has. You must have had a good life."

"Yeah, besides that whole incident of last year and having an extended out-of-body experience this year, I've got lots of happy times." Julie's memories strayed to a few of her more private moments with Drake and Matt laughed. "What?"

"Those memories. Amusing, really." Matt said.

"You can see them?!?"

"Well, the cloak absorbs them, and Good Matt was telling me about this really neat one you had with your mother, and then that one all of a sudden cut out to you and Drake being all huggy. He just stopped and is now quite embarrassed." Matt chuckled again. "Don't worry, it's not like I care."

"You'd better not tell anyone, or I'll…I'll…I'll…"

"What? Stutter at me? I'm dead, there's little you can do and teenage puppy love is not high on my priority list."

"You…"

"Chill out. Well, not literally, because that would probably result in your death." Matt scratched his chin and turned up the mountain. "Seriously, you shouldn't care. I'm not going to be around long enough to do anything, and do you honestly think I would? Come on, let's go. You're wasting time." He took another step up the crude stairwell. "Coming?"

"Yeah, yeah… but stop messing around in my head, okay?"

"I can't help it, and that wasn't me." Matt's head snapped around. "I feel something… bad."

"What do you mean?" Julie asked. "Is someone hurt?"

"Possibly… I can't tell." Matt said. "But we need to get moving, or they'll be in trouble. Come on!" He charged up the stairs at a speed at which the still physically-challenged could hardly keep up. She lost track of him quite quickly, and slid to a stop through him (it was rather uncomfortable). Drake was dueling, and he was frozen in ice up to his armpits. This is what Julie saw:

Drake: 1400 

**Fiend: 3800**

Drake had a defense position Silent Magician (Light/Spellcaster/Effect, 1000/1000) and a facedown. It seemed to be his turn, and he was about to end it. The fiend, meanwhile, had Mobius the Frost Monarch and a Frostosaurus, as well as a facedown card.

"Oh no…" Julie whispered.

"You made it!" Keith said, noticing them.

"I thought you guys would be dead for sure." Flynn said. "But you're a bit late. Drake's had it, he's freezing and can't get anything to fall his way. He killed Mobius only to have it come back the turn after. He tried to kill the monster that he sacrificed for the Frost dino only to have it go horribly wrong. He can't get anything to sway his way, and he's lost the will to fight with all that ice on him."

"No…" Julie said. _He can't lose! I can't lose him! That would kill me inside…_ "Drake! Don't lose! I don't want to lose you!"

"Julie… did I die from cold? Are you dead?" Drake said aloud, not bothering to look up. "I'm such a failure."

"Oh, shut up, Drake! You're still alive, you've got to keep fighting! Come on, I know you can beat this guy, we've done it before!"

"I've lost it already… I've tried everything. My cards have failed me…"

"If that's you're attitude, then you've failed your cards!"

"But I can't do anything…"

"You're a failure." Julie turned away from him. "I used to like how you never gave up, but I guess that Drake died some time ago…"

"Wait! Don't leave me!" Drake shouted, struggling to turn around in his icy prison. "I can't live without you…"

"Well, if that's the way you're going to be, then I can live without you." Julie said.

The fiend laughed. "See how your friends abandon you! You are doomed."

Drake looked back at the fiend with a renewed determination. "No… I can't be." He studied his hand, hoping to find a way out in it. "I've already summoned all my monsters… this is hard. Granted, my Silent Magician has 3500 attack because of his spell counters, but… I don't like that facedown card."

"As you shouldn't, for you will never penetrate it!" The fiend said.

"But wait… it's my Standby Phase. I sacrifice my Silent Magician Lv. 4 for Silent Magician Lv. 8! (Light/Spellcaster/Effect, 3500/1000) in attack mode!"

The fiend lost his haughty look. "So?"

"Well, let's see… I activate my spell card Megamorph. While I have less life points than you, my monster's attack is doubled. So now he has 7500."

The fiend looked frightened. "You can't get past my trap…"

"We'll see about that. Go, Silent Magician, attack his Mobius!"

"I activate Shrink! While this card may not save Mobius, it does save my life points!"

"Not true… the Magician ignores all of your spell cards."

"No!"

Drake: 1400 

**Fiend: 0**

The fiend was quickly encased in a block of ice that shattered, leaving the fiend's remnants all over the ground. Drake's ice block melted and he collapsed from shock. Julie ran to him.

"I'm sorry I was so harsh…" She whispered to him. "I didn't mean it, I can't live without you…" But Drake had fallen unconscious. Julie shed a single tear into his coat and tried to pick him up. Matt stopped her.

"Don't try." He said, and easily hefted Drake. He turned to Keith and Flynn. "Wait, where's Helen?"

"Over there, still injured." Flynn said, turning a little red (though it was hard to see, as his face was already quite red from the cold).

"You shot her?"

"What?"

"Idiot. Why?"

"Because she pushed you off!"

"Correction: I jumped off." Matt said. "And she accidentally knocked Julie off, but it was partially your fault. Didn't Keith tell you that?"

"Yes, but…"

"NO BUTS!!!" Matt shouted with enough force to cause snow to fall off the mountain. He seemed to swell with anger. "YOU'VE BEEN UNDERMINING THIS GROUP FOR SOME TIME NOW, DO YOU THINK I DIDN'T SEE YOU? DAMN IT, KILL THAT STINKING VENDETTA AGAINST HELEN AND MOVE ON!!!" Matt deflated as the anger came out in the huge shout. Flynn had fallen over in surprise.

"Don't do that!" Flynn said. "You scared me!"

"You needed it. You've been an ass." Matt said. "I've been watching you. You don't trust me. Neither did Drake. Nor does anyone else. I don't get it, and I frankly don't care. If you go against what I say to do, you'll die just like all the others who decided to not trust me at the critical moment." He shifted Drake on his shoulder and moved to Helen. "You okay?"

"A little freaked out by the fact that the mountain was just shaking, and in a lot of pain, but otherwise okay." She said, taking hold of Matt's semi-solid arm with her good arm and pulling herself up. "I think I'm okay for now."

"Good." Matt turned to the others. "Did anyone else get hurt?"

"Nope." Keith said. "Just Helen."

"Bad habit to get into." Matt said to Helen. "You'll end up like me."

"What, dead?"

"Well… that's not what I meant, but I suppose, yes." Matt laughed a little. "Come on, I don't want to stay here if there are still fiends coming up the mountain, now that we are together again." He moved towards the steps. "Or do we plan on waiting all day here?"

"Not a chance." Flynn said. "Come on, folks, let's blow this Popsicle stand."


	33. On the Side of Everest

Chapter 33- On the Side of Everest

Matt lead them up to the place where he and Julie had fallen off earlier.

"Okay, now let's all give Flynn some room so we don't have any accidents again." Matt said. Flynn stepped up next to him and begin to whirl the grapple around his head. After it had gained some speed, Flynn threw it upward onto the next ledge. He pulled a few times to make sure it was secure, then let go of the rope and looked at the others.

"Who's first?" He asked.

"I'll go." Keith said, grabbing hold of the rope and beginning to shimmy up it. Helen, who had broken out of her mindless trance, quietly followed him up. Drake reached for the rope at the same time as Julie. For a moment, his hand was on top of hers. Then he pulled away.

"Ladies first." He muttered. Julie turned a little redder and began to climb the rope. Drake grabbed hold and began to climb up behind her. Flynn was right behind him. Matt simply floated up the cliff.

"Why didn't you just do that when we fell off?" Julie asked as he floated near her.

"Because at the moment I'm not part of the physical realm. I cannot touch or save you while I do stuff like this." Matt responded.

"Oh. Well, then, the other way works well too." Julie said. She reached the top of the cliff and pulled herself over. Drake reached out to grab the edge and his fingers slipped. He slid a few feet on the rope, bumping into Flynn.

"Hey!" Flynn said. "Learn to hold onto a rope!"

"Sorry!" Drake said, pulling himself back up. "The edge broke."

"Grab farther in!" Flynn said.

"I'll try." Drake reached up to grab the edge again. This time, someone else grabbed his arm and helped him up.

"Wouldn't want to have you fall like me." Julie said. Drake reached out with his other hand and pulled himself over the edge.

"Yeah, that would be bad." Flynn said, pulling himself up behind Drake and pulling in the rope. "That's one bit of excitement I can live without."

"As can we all." Matt said, letting his sleeves slid back down his arms. "All of this shouting seems to have alerted the fiends to our presence here, and we need to hurry if we don't want this snow to turn black and red."

There was a sudden rumbling over head. Drake looked up to see a huge wave of white cascading down the side of the mountain, heading straight for them.

"Avalanche!" Keith said.

"Get close to me!" Matt shouted, grabbing Helen by the neck of her coat and pulling her in close to him. Drake jumped to his feet and ran closer to Matt when he turned and saw that Julie wasn't moving.

"Come on Julie!" Drake shouted.

"My leg's stuck in the snow!" She shouted back. "I can't get it out!" Drake rushed out, grabbed both her arms, and tried to pull her out. She was firmly stuck.

"Drake, hurry up!" Matt said. "It's getting closer!"

"I can't get free!" Julie shouted. "Save yourself, Drake… I'm done for."

"Not yet!" Drake said, now desperate. _No, no, no! I can't lose her again._ "I can't lose you again!"

"I know it's hard, Drake, it's hard for me to let go of you." She said. "But I don't want you dead for my sake…" Matt was cursing behind them, apparently frustrated with something that wasn't working right.

"You're more important than me." Drake said. "I thought Matt told you that."

"He did, but… I'm beyond help. Go on…" She said.

Just as Drake was about to pull away from her, accept her fate and move on, when something seized him about the waist. It squeezed tightly and pulled him back, as if he were in some kind of lasso. Indeed, what looked like a lasso of white and black had wrapped itself around Julie and pulled her free of the snow. Matt caught them both in either arm as they flew backwards.

The snow was dangerously close to them. The thundering was deafening. Drake could see huge chunks of ice flying down toward them. He braced for impact as it came closer. Matt let go of him and he fell onto dry ground.

The chill of the snow hitting him and rush of falling didn't come. He looked up to see it rushing over Matt's shield of faces, which he had projected around all of them, diverting the snow. He had once again saved all of them.

"Sorry for almost leaving you hanging." Matt said, his arm raised with the spirits flowing from his palm. "I had a problem getting the spirits to work. You see, sometimes when I try for spirits, I get fire, or vice-verse. It doesn't happen that often, but it usually crops up when I'm under stress."

"It's okay." Julie said, rubbing her ribs. "But next time, not so tight, okay?"

Matt smiled. "Sure."

"That seemed unnatural." Helen said. "We didn't do anything to set it off."

"William may have cause it." Matt said. "His power is growing at an alarming rate…"

"That's ridiculous." Flynn said. "There's no way he could have-"

"I hate to break up this wonderful discussion, but I think I hear something out there." Keith said, nearing the spirit shield tentatively.

"Ready your weapons and fire to wound." Flynn said, cocking his own rifle. "If it's another person, I don't want murder on our records. If it's fiends, kill them all."

The spirits began to flow back into Matt's hand. "Careful, careful…" He said.

"WE'VE GOT THEM NOW!!!" came the voice of an undoubtedly excited fiend. A blue ray flew past Flynn's face and flew at Matt. His spirit shield appeared to try and block it, but the ray seemed to hit the shield and flatten out, quickly enveloping Matt in a sphere of blue light. The fiends laughed horribly as Matt struggled against it.

"Stop trying, you'll never break it!" The fiend said.

"You bastard!" Flynn shouted, unleashing a stream of bullets in the fiend's direction. He was one of the few to do so, as he was the last to be grabbed by the ankles and lifted off the ground. Drake tried to maintain a hand on his rifle as he was flipped upside down, but it the fiend who had grabbed his ankles tore it out of his hands.

"What the…?" Flynn said, shaking free from the first hand but failing to avoid the second. The fiend that Flynn had shot at stood up again, with several bullet wounds visible.

"You fools! While you were climbing this mountain, little did you know that we had our brethren hidden beneath the snow, waiting to attack! And while you were distracted by my appearance, they seized you from below and now you are helpless." The fiend looked smug. "Even your so-called invincible friend is helpless in our newly developed spirit catcher ray!"

Matt threw himself against the wall of his imprisoning sphere. It didn't even budge. "Great. I never thought they would figure this one out…"

"Now what are you going to do with us?" Drake said, the blood rushing to his head.

"Take you to the boss, of course! He has wanted for so long to have some fun with the ones who have obstructed him for too long!" said the fiend. "Come, my brothers! We are near!" The other fiends laughed and began to haul them up the side of the mountain. The fiend Flynn had shot was pushing the sphere containing Matt.

"What are we going to do now?" Julie whispered to Drake. "We're doomed, Matt's in trouble, they're going to take my soul again!" The fear in her voice became evident only in the last phrase.

"We'll find a way out of it." Drake said, though he doubted he sounded convincing. "I'm sure we will…"

The fiends hauled them up the mountain, upside down the whole way. Drake started feeling sick with the blood in his head. They entered a hole in the side of the mountain. There was very little light inside.

_This could be it,_ Drake thought. _He might kill us here… there's no Matt to save us now. He's caught this time too, and it doesn't look like he can get out… we're doomed._ The fiend flipped him over and strapped him to a vertical table. Drake struggled against the bindings, but they seemed to tighten as he struggled.

"Don't bother trying to free yourself." Came William's voice from a dark corner. "It'll just make things worse for you." He stepped out of the shadows, his face uncovered. "Finally, you have failed for the last time."

"You scum, that's just what you think." Flynn said. William drew close to Flynn.

"I've been wanting to do this for a long time." He said, and hit Flynn hard across the face. "And I think for good measure, again." He punched Flynn in the stomach. "Ah, that felt good."

"Jackass…" Keith said. "Let him down so that he can defend himself!"

"No, I don't think I will." William said. "My plan has finally come to the end, because there are no longer any people to resist me."

"Not quite." Matt said. "There are others who are quite willing to stop you should we fail."

" 'Should you fail'? You already have! And there is no way for you to communicate! You're done for!" William said. "Only one thing remains… to take for the Sacred One what he deserves." He turned to Julie and ran his hand along her face. She turned away in disgust. "So sorry, beautiful, but you die now."

"Don't touch her!" Drake said, trying to break the bindings again. They tightened some more. "You… you scum… we saw what you had on your computer."

William turned a little red. "So what? You're not going to be around much longer to avenge it." He turned to a fiend and took a large knife from him. "You know, simply taking her soul was a bad idea. You see, I wanted her body as whole as possible. But it left her alive, to be revived by you fools later. But this time, I won't make that mistake. Instead of taking her souls, I am simply going to carve out her heart and offer that!"

"NO!" Drake said, again attempting to break the bindings around his arms and legs. They didn't seem to get any tighter, but he couldn't get them looser either. "You… you evil…"

"Oh, wook, the helpless wittle boy is feewing fo his girl fwend!" said William in a mock-baby voice. "Can it, will you? You can't do anything about it." And with that, he turned and drove the knife into Julie's chest.

Julie screamed, a horrible, piercing scream, as if something more than her flesh was being rent. Blood was leaking out from around the knife. William adjusted his grip on the handle so that he could move it around and cut her heart out.

Something hit the cave and blew up. The plank Drake had been bound to snapped in half tearing the bindings away. The floor was crumbling away. Drake staggered across the quickly breaking pieces and got to the outside. His self-preservation instincts told him to keep moving and that everyone would be okay.

He stepped outside and saw an advanced-looking fighter fly past. He took another step and lost his footing, sliding down the slope to his right and crashing into a pile of snow.

He carefully extracted himself in time to see Flynn, Keith, and Helen all running for dear life away from a large fire. Whatever was in there had been lit on fire in the explosion.

_Well, there goes his hidden base… oh, crap! Julie!_ Drake remembered, and tried to run up the slope. His feet shot out from under him and he crashed to the ground. _No, no, no! I can't let her…_ He looked up to see Matt with Julie hanging limply over his shoulder. Matt slid down the snow bank and stopped next to Drake.

"She's okay." He said. "And so are we all, thanks to your dad."

"Wait- what?" Drake said.

"That plane that flew by? X-32 Nightmare. Matt Jurik flew one in here and my request, and I told your dad to fly around here and fire on that place if he saw something bad happen. It did, so he saved us." Matt crouched and lay Julie down in the snow. "Thank God, he didn't start near anything critical. She's in a lot of pain, there was a curse on that knife, I could feel it through my prison." Blood was slowly trickling from the gash just to the side of Julie's heart. "She'll bear that as a scar for the rest of her life."

"Can't you heal it, though?" Drake asked.

"No, it's cursed. I can't do anything, I'm sorry."

"Is she going to be okay?" Flynn asked, joining them and looking slightly concerned.

"Yeah, but I'm going to have to carry her for now." Matt said, hoisting her up again. "Come on, I have a feeling that someone's going to be waiting at the bottom for us, and I'd hate to keep him waiting."

Rage filled Drake. "So would I, but only because I want to kill him."

"Understandably so. You'll get your chance, just don't overdo it."


	34. The Final Rounds! Tyrant Unleashed!

Chapter 34- The Final Rounds! Tyrant Unleashed

Matt shifted Julie on his shoulder. She groaned.

"It hurts, it hurts…" She moaned.

"It'll be okay, it'll all be alright." Matt said quietly.

"But it's so painful…" She said. "What if a fiend shows up? I can't fight then… and then you guys are in trouble."

Matt thought for a moment before setting her down. "Drake, you help her."

"What?" Drake asked. "Why?"

"Don't know. I have a vague notion that if you help her, you can relieve the pressure of the curse."

"You have a lot of vague notions." Flynn said.

"And they're usually right, if you haven't noticed." Keith said. "I'm still wondering how you knew to call in an airforce, how you knew to write that death thing in your PDA, all of this stuff."

Matt smiled. "Try playing chess. It tends to help that foresight thing."

"You play a lot of games." Helen said.

"Used to. Stopped when I went into solitude, because there was no one to play with. Brooklyn didn't offer much of a challenge, anyhow, and didn't like to play because I would stare him down while playing chess and it freaked him out."

"Yeah, I would think that eye would freak me out too. Still does." Flynn said.

Drake helped Julie to her feet, pulling her arm over his shoulders. She seemed to be able to support her own weight to a degree, but she was clutching the gash where William had inserted the knife and seemed too distracted to move herself. As soon as Drake touched her, though, she seemed to have gained some relief from whatever was tormenting her.

"Thanks Drake." She said. "I feel better, for some reason."

"That's good." He said. "You're in bad condition far too much of the time."

"Isn't that the truth." Matt said. "Come on, someone's waiting and he isn't happy. Throw the rope down the side of the mountain, Flynn. I can take everyone down."

"What do you think he wants?" Flynn said, dropping the hook over the edge. It hit the ground, a few hundred feet below. "Wait… I didn't bring that much rope." He looked between his hands. The rope between his hands was glowing white. "What the…?"

"I figured you wouldn't have that much rope, so I augmented it with my souls to form a chain. You guys okay?" A confirming shout came from the rope. "Good. Now, everyone come here." Everyone gathered around him, Drake still half-supporting Julie. "I'm going to slide down the rope."

"What about us?" Helen asked.

"I'm going to hold you all up so that I take the impact upon landing." Several arms grew from Matt and picked each of them up.

"Careful!" Keith said, his feet dangling. "Isn't this dangerous?"

"Not when I'm doing it." Matt said, walking to the rope and discharging a ball of blue energy. The blue sphere seemed to morph into the form of a man. "Akhom, hold the rope." Akhom dug his feet into the snow and grabbed hold of the spirit chain. Matt grabbed hold just below Akhom's hands.

"Brace yourselves." Matt said, and jumped off the mountainside, the rope sliding between his hands as he fell. He griped tighter to slow them down. Smoke began to come out from under his hands.

"Is this safe?!?" Drake shouted over the whipping winds.

"Hardly, but when has anything we've ever done been safe?" Keith shouted back. Matt shifted them all away from the mountain as the rope swung them closer. Matt kicked off the mountainside.

"It's safe!" He shouted. "At least, since I'm doing it, it is! This would burn right through a human's hands!" His hands tightened, and they stopped just above the ground. Drake could smell burning flesh.

"Doesn't that hurt?" He asked as the arms set them all down.

"No." Matt said, holding out his arm and letting the spirits flow back into himself. "Which is why I did it. Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah." Everyone else said.

"Good. Now, let's…"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!!!" came William's voice.

"…I was about to say let's go meet William, but he's right there." Matt said, smiling in a bemused kind of way. "Saves us a bunch of time."

"You'll wish we hadn't shown up after we're done with you!" William said. "For I have the six strongest fiends with me! You have no chance of winning."

"Is that so?" Matt said, a duel disk appearing on his arm. "Throw them all at me, and I'll knock them all down at once."

"Do you honestly think I'm that stupid, now that I know you posses the Heaven deck, the second most powerful deck in the world?" William said disdainfully. "The only person who can match it is me, with the most powerful deck in the world!"

"I doubt that. Care to back that up?" Matt said.

"Not yet. You must each defeat one of my fiends in order to face me." William said.

"Nah, we'll just take you on now, let Matt deal with the other fiends." Drake said.

"I can kill you now." A bunch of fiends appeared on the crest of the hills surrounding them. Several of them were holding the spirit guns.

"Let's just go with this, then." Flynn said, raising his duel disk. "I'll go first. Pick your fiend to send to its death."

William considered a sheet of paper. "You, number three, you go in first."

"With pleasure." The fiend said, stepping in to meet Flynn. "Ready to die?"

"No. I think it's your turn for that."

"Let's duel!"

Flynn: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I'll lead off." Said the fiend, drawing a card. "I set one monster in defense mode, to be joined by a facedown card. That is all."

"Okay." Flynn said. "I'm going to summon up Horus, the Black Flame Dragon Lv. 4 (Fire/Dragon/Effect, 1600/1000) in attack mode. Attack his facedown monster!"

"That was my Sangan! When he is removed from the field, I can bring one monster with an Attack of 1500 or less to my hand from my deck. So, I'm going to pull out an Ojama Green and add it to my hand."

"So what? Ojamas are pathetic. I set a card, and now that I'm going to end my turn, I can sacrifice my Horus to special summon his superior level 6 form. (Fire/Dragon/Effect, 2300/1600) That's all for now."

"Good. It is now my turn." The fiend drew again. "I activate my facedown card, Ojama Trio, which special summons three Ojama tokens to your side of the field, completely worthless to you."

"Oh well." Flynn said. "I've gotten out of this before."

"Not this way." The fiend said. "I'm going to set another card and end my turn."

"Fine. This is getting boring." Flynn said. He drew. "Hm… I suppose I'll set a monster and attack!"

"I play Spellbinding Circle! This card will now bind down your dragon… permanently."

"Fine then, turn end."

"Good. Now I can go about killing you." The fiend drew. "This is too easy. I'm going to win… I set a card, then activate Emergency Provisions! This will send the card to the graveyard, and give me 1000 life points."

Flynn: 4000 Fiend: 5000 

"Furthermore, as that card was Ojamagic, I can transfer all three Ojama to my hand, right where they belong!" Three cards stuck out of the fiends deck and he added them to his hand. "Then I play Polymerization! This card allows me to fuse my Ojamas to form Ojama King! (Light/Beast/Fusion/Effect, 0/3000) Normally this would allow me to make you unable to use three monster slots, but all your slots are in use. So that doesn't work. Instead, I summon Ojama Green (Light/Beast/Effect, 0/1000) and activate Ojamuscle! This destroys all Ojama monsters on the field, and gives King 1000 attack for each! There are four on the field, so now his attack is 4000 points!

"And in addition to that, you take 300 damage for each destroyed token! That's 900 damage!"

Flynn: 3100 

**Fiend: 5000**

"Now, Ojama King, attack his Black Flame Dragon!" The King flew up into the air and slammed down on the spellbound dragon's head.

Flynn: 1400 

**Fiend: 5000**

As his monster was hit by the crushing force of Ojama King, Flynn's head snapped forward, farther than it should have. He looked shocked. The fiend laughed.

"Quite amusing, this shadow game, isn't it?" The fiend said, still laughing. "Now, whenever your monster takes damage, you take the same damage! So, for instance, if I, say, leave a gash in its head, you will receive that same gash!"

"Flynn, don't worry." Matt said. "It may hurt, but it's just an illusion."

Flynn grabbed his head and snapped it back into place. "Ow." He said. "That really hurt. I'm going to kill you now."

"Ha! How?"

"Like this." Flynn said, and drew. "I activate Graceful Charity! This card will allow me to draw three cards, then discard two." Flynn shuffled three cards off the top of his deck, studied them, and sent two to the graveyard. "Then, I activate De-Fusion! This spell card will turn Ojama King back into three weak Ojamas, all in attack mode. (Light/Beast/Effect, 0/1000) x3"

"So what? There's no way you can do enough damage this turn!"

"Actually, that's not true. I flip summon my Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1 (Wind/Dragon, 1400/1200). Granted, he's a mediocre monster, but he's perfect for what I need him for. I activate Monster Reborn, which allows me to bring back a powerful monster from my Graveyard. However, due to this monster's incredible power, I need to sacrifice a dragon before I can special summon him. So, say farewell to my Winged Dragon, and say hello to the mighty Tyrant Dragon!"

The fiend looked shocked as the powerful beast emerged onto Flynn's field. "Even with all that power, you can't kill me in one shot!"

"That's normally true. (Fire/Dragon/Effect, 2900/2500) However, if, after my first attack, you still have monsters, the Tyrant Dragon can attack again. And since you have three monsters, I don't think I'll have a problem meeting that condition. Now, Tyrant Dragon, tear through his Ojama Yellow!"

Flynn: 1400 

**Fiend: 2100**

The fiend was crushed under the weight of the attacked, falling over onto his back and struggling to get up. Flynn didn't let him. "Tyrant Dragon, attack again! Destroy Ojama Black!"

Flynn: 1400 

**Fiend: 0**

The second attack was too much. The fiend's body was crushed flat and its blood began to leak out around it. Flynn breathed what sounded like a sigh of relief. "Good. Now I don't have to feel that odd sensation again."

"Well, well. He's not all that bad." William said. "So you've won once. I don't really care much. I know none of you can best me…"

"I can take you any day." Drake said. "We've already proved that."

"Ah, but that was with my old deck." William said. "Now… it doesn't matter. You will lose."

"Oh, shut up, you slughead." Matt said. "You're so slow, I sometimes wonder how you got into the American Academy."

William frowned. "You're next. Fiend two, rip him apart."


	35. The Final Rounds! Death Released!

Chapter 35- The Final Rounds! Death Released!

The second fiend in line stepped up, eyeing Matt evilly. "Come on then, you miserable failure, come here so I can crush you!"

Matt smiled a little. "I don't think so."

"Ha! What gives you that impression? My deck is perfect!" The fiend said.

"Sure." Matt said, activating his duel disk.

"Let's duel!"

Matt: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I shall begin." Matt said. "I set a monster in defense mode, and a card facedown. That shall end my turn."

"Is that the best you can do?" The fiend said disdainfully. "Fine, then. I'll summon X-Head Cannon (Light/Machine, 1800/1500) in attack mode! Attack his facedown monster!"

"That was Child Angel. (Heaven/Fairy/Effect, 200/200)" Matt said.

"What a wimpy monster." The fiend said. "I thought you could do better than that."

"His effect makes him worth his weakness." Matt said. "A monster that attacks him is given a Grief Token, disgusted with itself for having killed a child. The Grief Token lowers attack and defense by 1000 points, and also prevents you from using that monster for attacking or changing position."

"Fine. I'll set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Good. At the end of your turn, I activate Wracked by Grief. This trap card removes all monsters with Grief Tokens from the game." Matt smiled as the cannon vanished. "Is that good enough for you?"

"Far from it!" said the fiend. "That's exactly what I wanted you to do!"

"Sure." Matt drew a card. "Fine then. I play Prophetic Angel (Heaven/Fairy/Effect, 1000/1800) in attack mode. When he's summoned, I can re-arrange the top three cards of my deck however I wish." Matt slid the three top cards off of his deck, contemplated them, switched then up a little, and put them back. "Now. I activate my Urgent Message from The Divine One spell card. This allows me to special summon any non-warrior angel card. So, I'll play Messenger Angel (Heaven/Fairy/Effect, 1000/1000) in attack mode! Messenger Angel, when summoned, allows me to draw two cards from the top of my deck, so long as I show them to you!"

Matt slid two cards off the top of his deck, held them up so that the fiend could see them for a few seconds, then added them to his hand. "Wait!" The fiend said. "I didn't get the chance to see what they were!"

"You get to see them, not figure out exactly what they are." Matt said. "Like in the movies. The bad guy always hears part of the message and has to guess at the rest."

"Powerful card right there." Keith said. "Especially in that combo. Let's see what he'll do with it."

"Win, of course." Drake said.

"Besides that."

"Does he do anything else?"

"He wins in really cool ways." Flynn said.

"I wonder if he's ever lost…" Helen said.

"Probably, but I doubt it happens very often." Keith said.

"If at all." Flynn said.

"I set one card facedown and end my turn." Matt said. "Go ahead."

"Fine! I will." The fiend drew a card. "I activate Card Destruction! This card forces us both to discard our entire hands and draw the same number of cards!"

Matt sent his hand to the discard pile with an almost invisible smile on his face. The fiend didn't seem to notice. He seemed to have something nasty planned. "Now, I activate my Soul Absorption spell card! Now, whenever a card is removed from the game, I gain 500 life points! Now, I activate Soul Release! With this card, I will remove Y-Dragon Head, Z-Metal Tank, V- Tiger Jet, and W-Wing Catapult from my graveyard! This move will grant me an extra 2000 life points.

Matt: 4000 

**Fiend: 6000**

"Now, I activate my facedown card, Return from the Different Dimension! Now, by paying half my life points…"

Matt: 4000 

**Fiend: 3000**

"…this allows me to special summon all of the monsters I just removed, along with the X-Head Cannon you removed! Come out, Z-Metal Tank (Light/Machine/Union, 1500/1300), Y-Dragon Head (Light/Machine/Union, 1500/1600), V-Tiger Jet (Light/Machine, 1600/1800), W-Wing Catapult (Light/Machine/Union, 1300/1500), and X-Head Cannon, all in attack mode! But I won't attack just yet. Oh, no. There are much better things to do."

"He can't!" Keith said. "He's going to summon V-Z!"

"Yes! Now I remove again V and W to summon VW Tiger Catapult (Light/Machine/Fusion/Effect. 2000/2100) in attack mode! By removing the monsters, I gain a further 1000 life points!"

Matt: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"Oh, look, right back where we started!" Matt said cheerfully. "How wonderful!"

"Shut up!" The fiend said. "I'm going to kill you! I remove X, Y, and Z to special summon XYZ Dragon Cannon (Light/Machine/Fusion/Effect, 2800/2600) in attack mode! This move also gives me 1500 more life points!"

Matt: 4000 

**Fiend: 5500**

"Now you are doomed! I remove both of these monsters to special summon the ultimate beast, VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon!" There was a huge amount of slow-motion dramatic transforming motions as the two already powerful monsters combined to form the giant mech. (Light/Machine/Fusion/Effect, 3000/2800) "Furthermore, I removed two more monsters, so I gain another 1000 life points!"

Matt: 4000 

**Fiend: 6500**

"This guy's gaining way too many life points." Drake said. "It may take a while for Matt to take them out."

"Nah." Flynn said. "He has too many strong monsters."

"But he won't be able to summon them! I use VWXYZ's special ability to remove your Prophetic Angel! Then, I will use his attack to strike a blow at your other angel! And when he attacks, your monster's position is switched! So now your Messenger Angel is in attack mode! BLAST HIM!!!"

Matt: 2000 

**Fiend: 6500**

The mech's cannons all powered up and blasted the head of the messenger clean off. As the attack connected, Matt's head fell of his shoulders.

"Hm…" He said, reaching up to scratch where his head would normally be. Julie screamed.

"OH MY GOD!!! That's just…" She turned away. Matt's head bore a strangely contemplative look. He reached down, grabbed hold of his own hair, lifted his head off the ground, and set it back on his shoulders. He tilted his head one way, then the other, cracking his neck and causing the fiend to look a little unsettled.

"That felt weird." Matt said. "Now, where were we?"

"I was ending my turn, fully ready to kill you next turn." The fiend said.

"Oh, yes. So you think." Matt drew a card. "I activate my trap, which you should have destroyed while you had XYZ. But you didn't, so now it will destroy you. I play my Sent Back to Complete the Mission. This returns all monsters that are heaven attribute removed from my field during the last turn to my field. In exchange, they cannot use their effects. So, welcome back my Prophetic Angel and Messenger Angel. Then, during my standby phase, I activate my Floodgates of Heaven trap that is now in my Graveyard. It gives me another card." He drew it.

"Now, I sacrifice both of them to summon one of the most powerful single creatures to ever visit the earth. Meet, The Angel of Death."

The sky above them darkened as a huge black swirling cloud appeared in the sky. It was exuding a power that was making Drake's hairs stand on end. He could feel the energy, so holy, and yet with a sinister edge that made him scared. Then, slowly, a tall being descended from the swirl. It had to be at least eight feet tall, with a grim, beautiful, face, shining white wings, a white robe with a black sash, and gold-handled scythe with a black blade. The scythe was in his right hand, and his left hung at his side, covered by the sleeve of his robe. It was like the ultimate oxymoron- beautiful, yet unpleasant to look at. The essence of good, and yet charged with an almost evil duty.

"Cool, isn't he?" Matt said. "He's got some good strength, as well. (Heaven/Warrior/Effect, 3200/3000) After all, he is the one who delivers death. His strength is so great that I can only have him on the field while there are at least 11 cards in my graveyard. Thanks to your Card Destruction, I have enough. When he's summoned, the Angel destroys the monster on your side of the field that has been around the longest. As you only have one, he's gone."

The Angel raised his left arm, and the sleeve pulled back to reveal a bone-white hand that looked almost skeletal. He was pointing at VWXYZ. The mech instantly fell to pieces.

"No! He was my best monster!" The fiend said, watching the flaming pieces of the once-powerful mech fall. "And my only one at the time! But…" A smug smile crossed his face. "…you can't kill me this turn!"

"Can I?" Matt asked quietly. "On the turn he's summoned, if the Angel is able to attack directly, he does an infinite amount of damage to the player. Angel of Death, attack him directly!"

Matt: 2000 

**Fiend: 0**

The fiend was split in half by the Angel's powerful downward slash. His blood spurted everywhere as Matt shuffled his deck back together. "Too easy." He said. The Angel flew back up into the sky and disappeared. The sky returned to normal color. William and the remaining fiends were nowhere to be found.

"Where'd they go?" Drake asked. William appeared from underneath a snow drift, looking around as if expecting to see something.

"Good, it's gone." William said. "Eh-hem… so! You managed to defeat another of my minions. That's still only two rounds! There are still three more to go! This time, I think I'll have that supposed 'genius' fight…" He contemplated his fiends. "Fiend number five!"


	36. The Final Rounds! A Helpoemering hand!

Chapter 36- The Final Rounds! A Help-oemer-ing hand!

Keith stepped up to face a smirking fiend. "I hope you're ready to meet a painful end to your life." Said the fiend.

"I'm not seeing such a death in my future." Keith said, lazily sliding a card from his pocket and putting it into his deck.

"What's that, Keith?" Flynn said.

"Just a card I wanted to put in but forgot to in all the chaos." Keith said, slotting his deck. "Alright, let's go."

"Let's duel!"

Keith: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I think I'll lead off." The fiend said, drawing his card. "I set a monster in defense mode, and that shall end my turn."

"Hm… a seemingly weak move." Keith said, drawing a card. "But I don't like it. I smell something fishy in your deck. Like something I haven't even seen before. So we have to play this cautiously. Let's see… I'll summon Shadowslayer (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1400/200) in attack mode! Because all of your monsters are in defense mode, he can attack directly. Go, Shadowslayer, attack directly!"

Keith: 4000 

**Fiend: 2600**

Keith's freakish fiend sliced the fiend across the arm with its hook sword, drawing blood. The fiend staggered back a little, then looked at Keith venomously. "You'll pay for that."

"Maybe." Keith said. "But not as bad as what you'll pay. I set a card facedown and end my turn there."

The fiend drew a card. "Let's see here… I activate my deck's key field card, Future Space War! This card will move us forward almost 40,000 years into the future. There is no peace in the future, there is only war! All the races of the universe send their warriors against the others to find out who is worthy to survive. This card will increase the attack of all of my special space warrior monsters by 500 points!"

" 'Special space warrior monsters'? Such as?" Keith said. "This is a series I've never heard of. Care to elaborate on them?"

"Yes. They are an exceptionally powerful series of cards that has yet to be released to the public. Master's family managed to get a set of them before they were released, and now I wield them. So, say hello to the first instrument of your doom, the mighty human Space Soldier (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1100/700)! With Future Space War active, he gains 500 points! (1600) Next, I flip my facedown monster, Space Field Medic (Light/Spellcaster/Effect, 600/1700)! While he is on the field, at the end of each of my battle phases I regain 500 life points! Furthermore, his strength is increased by 500 points thanks to Space War! (1100)"

"That's still pretty pathetic." Keith said.

"Let's see how pathetic you think it is to hit you! Space Soldier, attack his Slayer!" The soldier leveled a hi-tech looking rifle and fired a beam of red light at Keith's monster, cutting through it and hitting Keith.

Keith: 3800 

**Fiend: 2600**

Keith winced as the laser hit him. "That… was painful."

"It's just the beginning. Space Field Medic, attack him directly!" The medic pulled out a pistol and fired it at Keith.

Keith: 2700 

**Fiend: 2600**

Keith winced as the bullet hit him in one of his old wounds. Blood trickled down his arm. "That's irksome."

"Not as irksome as this will be! I now gain 500 life points…"

Keith: 2700 

**Fiend: 3100**

"…and set a card facedown! This will end my turn."

"Fine." Keith drew a card.

"Just like that he gets put down." Flynn said.

"Yeah, and who knows what else these cards do?" Drake said.

"I don't think he has anything formidable right now." Matt said, cracking his neck again. He had been doing it quite a lot since the fiend had knocked his head off. "But, later… I don't know."

"Let's see…" Keith studied his hand. "Nothing you have is particularly formidable right now… but I don't want to see anything that is. I summon La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp (Dark/Fiend, 1800/1000) in attack mode!"

"Since there's no better time, I activate my trap card Win Condition- Take and Hold! Here's how it works. This card warps the very nature of the game we're playing. From now, on, Life Points mean nothing. Now this turns into a strategy battle. To win the game now, a player must control three spell cards called "Critical Locations." This card counts as one of them. I can only activate one per turn, and I must play at least one every turn. When a player attacks directly, instead of doing damage they gain control of the card! Get it?"

"Sort of." Keith said. "Basically, whoever can get the three cards wins. You have to attack directly to get the cards. Once you control all three, you win."

"Interesting. A new strategy kind of game." Flynn said. "At least we know that Keith is good at strategy."

"La Jinn, attack the Space Soldier!" Keith said.

"Hm. I take no damage because of my Win Condition card. Are you done?"

"I set one card. Now I am."

"Good." The fiend drew a card. "This turn, I can't play a Critical Location card due to the effect of my Win Condition card. But I can play a monster to stop you from taking the one I have! I summon the powerful Space Marine (Earth/Warrior, 1900/1700) in attack mode! Destroy his La Jinn!"

Keith grunted as some of the shots from the Marine's rifle tore through La Jinn and hit him. "I activate the trap card Michizure. Now, I can destroy your Marine."

The fiend hissed. "I can't do any damage, but even though life points don't really matter, my medic still gives me 500 points."

Keith: 2700 

**Fiend: 3600**

"To what point and purpose?" Keith said.

"If my Win Condition card gets destroyed, the game goes back to normal." The fiend said. "I wouldn't want to be caught without enough life points!"

"Well, I can at least kill that source." Keith said, drawing. "I'm going to summon Malice Doll of Demise (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1600/1700) in attack mode. Attack his medic!"

"No matter." Said the fiend, shaking off the attack. "He wasn't worth much anyway."

"That's a bit harsh." Keith said. "I set one more card, and that will end my turn."

"Ha!" The fiend drew a card. "Just because you can summon one mediocre monster doesn't mean anything. This turn, I have to play a Critical Location card. But I don't have one in my hand, so I can pull one from my deck and play it." The card stuck out of the fiend's deck and he placed it on the field. "Just one turn, and I'll win! Ha! I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."

Keith drew. "I have an idea of how to destroy that plan, though. First, I'll summon my Giant Orc (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 2200/0) in attack mode. Then, I'll use him to attack your monster!"

"Ha!" The fiend said. "You fell into a trap of sorts! You may have summoned a strong monster, and it has more attack points than my monster has defense, but my Heavy Turret (Earth/Machine/Effect, 200/2100) cannot be destroyed in battle while you have less than 3 monsters or no machine-type monsters! So, you will not get a critical location this turn, and that means you lose next turn, when I play my next Critical Location! And to make matters worse, your Giant Orc is now in defense mode!"

"Is that so?" Keith said. "Because that was only my initial plan to stop you."

"What?!? What do you think you can pull on me?"

"This type of win condition only exists in the future, where it matters. Back here, in this time, it has no bearing. So, what if Future Space War is removed from the field? Let's find out. I activate Mystic Plasma Zone, forcing you to discard Space War. This spell card boosts the power of dark monsters by 500 points and drops their defense by 400. So, Malice Doll now has 2100. And, if my guess is correct, with the departure of Space War, Take and Hold goes as well."

The fiend scowled. "How did you know that?"

"Yeah, how'd he figure that out?" Julie asked. "That's way beyond me!"

"And me." Drake said. "I don't see the connection.

"That's why they consider him the genius and not you." Flynn said.

"True enough."

"Now how are you going to win next turn?" Keith said. "I think I will end my turn, knowing that you can't. And you might want to start watching your life points, as they now matter and will be dropping very soon."

The fiend drew, staring daggers at Keith. "You think you've won because you destroyed Space War, but you're wrong! I activate Escalate Engagement, which allows me to draw two cards provided I have one 'Space' monster on the field. And Heavy Turret is considered as such." The fiend drew two new cards. "Ha! Just what I needed. I play another Future Space War card, getting rid of your Plasma Zone! Now, I remove my Space Marine from my graveyard to meet the summon condition of one of my strongest monsters! I summon the mighty Space Warmachine- Dread Walker (Earth/Machine/Effect, 2700/1900) in attack mode! With Space War on the field, he gains 500 attack! (3200) Attack his Malice Doll!"

Keith: 1100 

**Fiend: 3600**

Keith fell to his knees as the mechanical walker's powerful blast tore apart his Malice Doll and hit him. "This is starting to hurt, despite the fact that it's going according to plan." He swayed to his feet. "Anything else?"

"I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"Good… onward." Keith drew his card. "I activate the more classic Pot of Greed to draw two cards." He checked them quickly and flashed a smile so quickly that Drake wasn't sure ever appeared. "Good, good. I'm going to sacrifice my Giant Orc to set a monster in defense mode. Turn end."

"Ha! At the end of your turn, I activate my trap, Win Condition- Annihilate! Now, we must each special summon one monster from our hands to complement our armies. I'll call on a second Space Marine!"

"Hm." Keith checked his cards. "I'll special summon… Newdoria (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1200/800) in defense mode."

"Ha! Think I'm stupid enough to walk into that?" The fiend drew. "I can win this easier! From now on, to summon monsters we must pay 500 life points. Furthermore, there is, again, no more battle damage. Once you are out of monsters, I can begin to attack the cards that you have set. After that, I get to attack your hand cards. The first player to have no cards loses! Savvy?"

"Savvy. Let's see what you've got."

"Fine then! I pay 500 life points to summon another Space Marine in attack mode. Then, I'll use my Dread Walker to attack the monster you set."

Keith smiled. "Thank you for attacking him. You have just unleashed the mighty Helpoemer!"

"The WHAT?!?"

"Helpoemer. When he is sent to the graveyard as a result of battle, during the end of your battle phase, one card of your hand is randomly sent to the graveyard."

"Curses… did you think I would play Annihilate?"

"I had a general idea." Keith said. "It was more of I wanted to put a control lock on you. Now, will you attack Newdoria?"

"No! I don't want to lose one of my monsters. I end!"

"Suit yourself. You lose a card from your hand." The fiend glared at Keith and tossed one of his cards away. Keith drew a card.

"This is going well. It's fun! I think I'll set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"It won't save you!" The fiend shouted. It clear that Keith was starting to get on his nerves. "I wanted to watch you squirm! Now, die!" He drew a card. "I normal summon Space Marine Force Commander (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 2400/2000) in attack mode! Since I already have 2 marines on the field, I don't need to tribute for him! He also further boosts my marine's attack by 200 points! That gives them-"

"Hold your breath. I'm using Needle Ceiling to destroy all face-up monsters."

"No!"

"Yeah, that's what I would say, since you only have two cards in your hand and your own win condition is about to kill you. Are you going to do anything?"

"No! I can't."

"Good. Helpoemer will now destroy one card in your hand because you have to pass through the battle phase." The fiend tossed away the only card that held his hopes for another turn of life. Keith drew. "I flip summon Spear Cretin (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 500/500). While he's really a weak monster, since you have no cards on your field except for Space and your hand card, and since Space can't be attacked because it maintains Annihilate, you'll die from one attack. Spear Cretin, destroy the last card in his hand and end the duel!"

Keith's monster stabbed the fiend's last card, and the fiend instantly exploded. Keith smiled and shuffled his deck back together. "Thank you, control tactics."

"Keith, you are an absolute freak of nature." Flynn said. "There's no other duelist that can see that far ahead."

"Yeah. Stop being so smart! You make me feel stupid!" Drake said.

William looked furious. "Come on, they're just mere duelists! You're supposed to be the best! Oh, no matter, just crush the other two! You…" He pointed at one of the fiends, evidently having forgotten their numbers. "Go kill that stupid Drake!"

Author's note: The "space warrior" cards are inspired in part by the game Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, if you wanted to know. Space Soldier is based off the Imperial Guardsmen, the Field Medic is the Space Marine's Apothecary, and the others are pretty straightforward.


	37. The Final Rounds! A Gallant Turnaround!

Chapter 37- The Final Rounds! A Gallant Turnaround

Drake stepped up to face the fiend. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach after what he had seen the first three go through, particularly Matt getting his head sliced off. He really didn't want to find out how that felt. Someone grabbed his arm.

"Wait, Drake." Julie said.

"What?" He asked.

"Use this." She held out a card, facedown.

"What is it?" He asked, grabbing a corner of it.

"I think it'll help. Don't look at it now. Wait until you draw it." She said.

"What's the point in that?" Drake said.

"I… don't know." Julie admitted. "It's this… thing I had. I don't think you need to be searching your deck for this card. I think it'll come to you when you need it."

Drake took the card and shuffled it into the center of his deck. "I suppose." He gave her a quick, one-armed hug. "Here's hoping I don't die in this."

"Please don't. That would make me really sad."

"I try." Drake smiled a little, just a bit. Then he turned away from Julie and walked to the fiend.

"Ready to die, little man?" the fiend said. He seemed to be larger than his colleagues.

"Not really." Drake said. "You guys keep asking us that, and the answer is always the same. Stop asking!"

The fiend smirked. "Well, then. No more questions."

"Right." Drake said, activating his duel disk.

"Let's duel!"

Drake: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I'll go first." Drake said. He drew a card. _Perfect._ "I set one monster in defense mode, and end my turn." _This should leave me well set-up, hopefully._

"Good. Now let the chaos begin!" The fiend drew a card. "I special summon Cyber Dragon (Light/Machine/Effect, 2100/1600) in attack mode! Then, I normal summon Card Trooper (Earth/Machine/Effect, 400/400) in attack mode! By activating his effect, I can send up to three cards from the top of my deck to the Graveyard, which increases Trooper's attack points by 500 per card! I send three cards and give him a 1500 point boost! (1900)"

"Uh-oh, we have a blitzer." Flynn said.

"Looks more like an OTK that failed." Keith said. "But for an OTK deck, it looks relatively stable so far. Not good."

"Trooper, attack his monster!" The fiend shouted, as the machine ran forward, gun blazing.

Drake winced as he the bullets shot through his monster, causing him some pain as well. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, but it was distracting. "You killed the Apprentice Magician! When destroyed in battle, I can special summon one level 2 or lower spellcaster-type monster in facedown defense mode." Drake slid a card from his deck and placed it facedown.

"Cyber Dragon, attack his monster!" The Dragon let loose a burst of flames. Drake's card flipped over revealing a hunched over magician with white hair. He was burnt instantly, only to leave his staff standing in the ground. Drake winced from the sudden burst of heat he felt, then looked up and smiled a little at the fiend.

"That was my Old Vindictive Magician. When he's flipped, he destroys one monster on the field. So, I think your Cyber Dragon is now gone."

The fiend cringed as his powerful beast exploded from the blast from the staff. "Curse you… he'll be back. I set one card and end my turn."

"It won't help you." Drake said, drawing. _I hope. I'm just taunting right now. I really don't have anything right now. His trooper is weaker now, but I really don't have an attack monster that I'd be willing to throw out there. What a pain. _"I set one monster in defense mode, and add a facedown card. That will be all."

"What inactivity! It's pathetic." The fiend drew. He was smirking something horrible. "I activate my facedown card, Call of the Haunted, to respawn my Cyber Dragon in attack mode. Then, I activate not one, but two Books of Life! Now, I can special summon two zombie-type monsters from the graveyard and remove two monsters from yours! I special summon Ryu Kokki (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 2400/2000) and Zombie Master (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 1800/0) in attack mode, and remove both of your monsters! Then, I activate Zombie Master's effect, discarding one card from my hand to special summon Pyramid Turtle (Earth/Zombie/Effect, 1200/1400) in attack mode!"

"OH SHIT!" Flynn said. "He's going to get squashed!"

"Cyber Dragon, strike down his monster again!"

"Urg… that was another Old Vindictive Magician. He'll use his effect to destroy Ryu Kokki."

"Fine! You're still in the path of my other monsters! Zombie Master, attack him directly!"

Drake groaned as the dark magic hit him.

Drake: 2200 

**Fiend: 4000**

"Now, Pyramid Turtle, strike!"

The turtle ran forward and smashed into Drake with the tip of its pyramid, drawing blood from his stomach.

Drake: 1000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"Now, Card Trooper, let him have it!!!"

Drake winced as the Card Trooper's shoots ripped into his body, as if they were real.

Drake: 600 

**Fiend: 4000**

Drake fell to the ground, in pain and bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the game. _It… feels so real._ He thought, his hand on one of the more severe wounds. _I can feel the blood on my hands…_

"This shouldn't be happening." Flynn said. "Isn't this not real? Then how is he bleeding?"

"It just seems that way." Matt said, his arms folded across his chest. "Remember, I was dealt what should have been a fatal blow and survived. It's just that you guys- except for Keith- aren't used to taking a whole lot of damage."

"Easy for you to say, you're dead!" Julie said, looking at Drake with concerned eyes.

"Exactly. Not to mention I had quite the collection of Purple Hearts while I was in the army. At last count… about eight, if I remember correctly. All for wounds received on the front lines. Those hurt a lot. I can ignore the pain because I'm quite used to it."

"But he isn't." Helen said.

"Clearly."

Drake wavered to his feet. "That… hurt."

The fiend laughed. "It was meant to! Why do you think it's called an attack? It's supposed to do damage! And thanks to my blitz, you have very few life points left! I end my turn there."

"Good." Drake drew slowly. It hurt to move. "I think… I might be okay. Just maybe… if…" He looked at the card. _This card!_ "I activate my facedown card, Call of the Haunted. With it, I can bring back one monster. I'll use it to special summon Apprentice Magician, not that it really matters. I sacrifice her to summon the Dark Magician Girl (Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 2000/1700) in attack mode!"

The fiend laughed. "So what? You can't defeat me this turn, can you? At least not with that! On my next turn, Ryu Kokki will chew up your pitiful little girl and kill you!"

"Not quite." Drake pulled a card out of his hand. "This card is your doom. I activate the spell card, A Gallant Protector Arises! I can only play this spell card when there is at least one female spellcaster- or warrior-type monster on my side of the field. It then allows me to special summon a male spellcaster- or warrior-type monster with more attack or defense points and a higher level from my deck! So, I'll use it to special summon the Dark Magician of Chaos (Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 2800/2600) in attack mode!"

"So what? That's just one monster, and he'll still be destroyed by my Ryu Kokki's effect if they engage in battle."

"I know, now shut up and let me play my cards!" Drake was getting a little frustrated by the fiend's constant interruptions. "When the Dark Magician of Chaos is summoned, I am allowed to bring one spell card back from the graveyard!"

"So what? There are no spell cards in your graveyard!"

"Are there?" Drake pulled out the card he had just played, A Gallant Protector Arises. "He's summoned after this card ends up in the graveyard, so I can use his effect to bring this card back. Now, if I actually had another Dark Magician of Chaos, this would be a deadly move to pull, but I don't, so I'll have to use it somehow else. Anyway, I'm going to activate A Gallant Protector Arises again! This time, I'm going to call out Buster Blader (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 2600/2300) in attack mode. So now I have 3 monsters on my side of the field, ready to kill you. Next I activate Sage's Stone, just to make sure, to special summon the Dark Magician (Dark/Spellcaster, 2500/2100) in attack mode!"

"And now for the finishing touch, I activate Knight's Title! This card allows me to sacrifice my Dark Magician to special summon Dark Magician Knight! An when he's special summoned, I can destroy one monster on the field! Namely, Ryu Kokki!"

"Curse you… I'll have your head!"

"Not when I'm done with you. The presence of the Dark Magician in the graveyard gives the Dark Magician Girl 300 extra attack points. Now, Dark Magician of Chaos, strike down his Pyramid Turtle!"

Drake: 600 

**Fiend: 2400**

"Ha! Since he was destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard…"

"No he's not."

"What?"

"Dark Magician of Chaos removes him from the game, so you can't special summon another monster. Now, Dark Magician Girl, attack his Zombie Master!"

Drake: 600 

**Fiend: 1900**

"Now, Buster Blader, destroy his Card Trooper and end this match!"

Drake: 600 

**Fiend: 0**

The fiend cried out a curse before exploding, showering the spectators in blood. William looked furious.

"You fool! You should have had him!" He shouted at the dead fiend's remains.

"Almost thought you had had it there, Drake." Flynn said.

"I almost did." Drake said, wiping some blood away from his injuries. "But I managed to draw that card… thanks, Julie. Where'd that card come from?"

"I'm… not exactly sure. I found it in my pocket a while ago and thought it went well in your deck. I didn't get a good chance to give it to you till now." She said.

"Hey! Stop relaxing! I'm not through with you yet!" William shouted. "So you managed to get through the first four of my fiends-"

"Duh. Didn't we tell you we would?" Matt said.

William turned red. "That's beside the point! Now, I've let you get off easy thus far…"

"Who's he trying to kid?" Drake whispered.

"…but now I'm going to pull something that's sure to win me this! Remember, I only need to win one game to defeat you all! And the person who's about to fight has only won one shadow game! The next duelist will be the former Professor Helen!"


	38. The Final Rounds! Dozed Over!

Chapter 38- The Final Rounds! Dozed Over

Helen stepped out from the group, looking a little nervous and shaking a little as well. Drake couldn't blame her. After all, William was right. Helen hadn't won but one shadow game, and that game was when there was four-on-four. She quietly raised her disk in front of her, almost in a defensive way, as if she could beat off the fiend that now stood before her with it.

"So, you pitiful woman, do you plan on actually opposing me?" The fiend said, standing up straighter to make himself slightly more intimidating.

"I suppose…" Helen said. "That's why we're here, right?"

"If you want to back out of this and join us, it's not too late." The fiend grinned evilly.

"Come on, do you think someone of her intellectual prowess will fall for that feeble, outdated trick?" Matt said, methodically shredding a fiend who had tried to sneak up on Julie. "And isn't this supposed to be some kind of fair, epic face-off? Why, then, William, are you sending your fiend warriors at us?"

Drake turned around and blanched. There was a large, still expanding pool of black fiend blood and a huge pile of fiend corpses piled up behind them. More of the monsters were moving towards them.

William reddened. "Damn it, I have to get rid of that Matt freak…"

"Don't even bother with a spirit cage again." Matt said, holding a fiend up in midair with one hand and skewering it with a soul lance formed in his other. Blood spewed everywhere. "Because one of these guys will just release it."

"Fine, fine, I'll stop them." William said, clearly frustrated. The oncoming fiends disappeared over the horizon. "Let's get back to these duels, shall we?"

"Very well." Matt said, the lance melting back into his hand. "Smash him, Helen. But, ah, not necessarily with Smashing Ground."

Helen smiled a little at Matt's quip, then turned back to the fiend, looking a bit more determined. "Let's get started."

_Matt should have gone for a career in motivation,_ Drake thought. _He can motivate anyone._

"Not everyone." Matt whispered in Drake's ear. "You can never motivate some people." Drake laughed nervously and focused on the duel. He really didn't want any stray thoughts coming in that Matt would read, especially the embarrassing ones.

"So, you think you can actually win this?" The fiend said, growling.

"I should hope so. I haven't studied dueling for this long to just lose to scrubs like you." Helen said. The fiend smiled evilly.

"You calling me a scrub? You fool, you have no idea."

"We won't find out until your life hits zero."

"Let's duel!"

Helen: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I'll go first!" Helen said, drawing a card. "I set this one monster facedown, then add a facedown card. That will be all."

"A boring, and very standard, first move." The fiend said. "Come now, have you got nothing better?"

"Stop your pointless banter, and actually play the game." Helen said.

The fiend frowned. "You're no fun to mess around with. I don't think I'm going to enjoy this duel that much." He drew a card. "Not that that matters. I'll crush you anyway and revel afterwards… as you writhe in pain in a pool of your own blood! I summon Berserk Gorilla (Earth/Beast/Effect, 2000/1000). As you probably know, he cannot be in defense mode and must attack every turn, but with 2000 attack points, I don't think that will be a problem!" The fiend chuckled.

"Shut the fuck up!" Helen shouted. "Get going, I don't want to be standing around here in the snow forever!"

The fiend was little taken aback by Helen's sudden outburst. So was Drake. He had never heard her curse before, and right now she looked livid. Her eyes are focused so hard and harshly on the fiend that it looked like they would burn holes through solid steel. The only other person that Drake had seen with such a savage look was Matt after Bentz had been killed. It scared him.

"If you keep rambling like this, I'm going to make your death extremely unpleasant." Helen snarled.

"Uh, okay, okay! Calm down, woman." The fiend stuttered, completely thrown off balance. "I attack your monster with my Gorilla!"

"Ha! The monster I had set facedown was my Man-Eater Bug, which now destroys your Gorilla!"

"Curse you, you did that on purpose!" the fiend growled. "But I will have my vengeance… I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"I'm sure you will." Helen said mildly. "But it won't be until I'm through with you." She drew a card. "I summon Insect Knight (Earth/Insect, 1900/1500) in attack mode! And now, since you have no monsters to defend your life points, I attack you directly!"

"I activate Sakuretsu Armor, to destroy your monster!"

"I set another card and end my turn."

"Hehehe… and now to start the countdown!" The fiend said. "During your end phase, I activate the trap card Destiny Board!" A bluish ghost bearing the letter "F" appeared on his side of the field. "Now, the Destiny Board reveals a letter every turn, spelling out a message. It will only take a few turns, and when the message is revealed, it will spell not only the end of the game for you, but the end of your life!" The fiend laughed.

"How's that?" Helen asked, thoroughly unperturbed. "Even in a Shadow Game, the loser doesn't die most of the time, especially when they've been in several. And I have been in several and lost quite a few of them, so I don't think I would be at risk for that."

"Ah, but this is special win condition, like summoning Exoida, different from the standard 'hack away at your opponent's life points' strategy. Because of that, if someone loses to it, they almost certainly will die!" The fiend laughed again. William smirked from behind him.

Suddenly their surroundings went dark, and all Drake could see were the people around him. Helen was picked up off the ground and lifted into the air with no visible support. Blood spurted from everywhere on her body, sending a crimson cascade over all those watching.

_What the…?!? But the duel's not over!!! She can't be dead!_ Drake thought, watching the limp body fall. Then, light came back to their surroundings. The blood was gone. Helen was still alive, albeit now considerably more pale than before the illusion.

"Good work, my loyal servant." William said. "We can finally eliminate this pest, after her having survived so many games that she shouldn't have."

"What was that all about?!?" Drake shouted at him.

"Oh, I just thought I'd show you what's going to happen shortly." William said. "So it isn't so shocking lately."

"No, you did it to try and break Helen's morale." Matt said, frowning. "You are quite unfair."

"I don't want you saying anything more for the rest of this duel." William sneered. "You're a fool, and a dead one at that, you cannot interfere any more here. Go away, you weakling!"

Something flared in Matt's eyes, and he crossed the field and seized William's throat. "You will die a horrible death for that. Once someone defeats you in a duel, I will spill every ounce of your blood I can before you die." His fingers tightened. "As a matter of fact, why don't I just kill you right now?"

William gagged and swung an open hand at Matt's head. Matt barely moved and avoided William's feeble assault. Matt threw William to the ground and turned around.

"Get down!" He shouted. Drake turned around in time to see a fiend take a swing at his head. Drake tried to duck but was late and the fiend's claw hit him across the side of his head, sending him spiraling to the ground. The impact left him seeing stars. The fiend advanced on him, clearly intending to spear him with the crude pike in its other hand, but before it got close, hands reached out of the ground and grabbed its legs and feet. Matt appeared in between him and the fiend.

"I said 'get down!', now 'turn around!'" Matt said, flicking his wrist. A lance with several points sticking out in different directions materialized from his hand.

"Sorry!" Drake said, getting unsteadily to his feet, and unslinging his rifle. He never got a chance to fire it. Matt skewered the fiend at its throat, causing to spray black blood all over him. Drake turned to see fiends everywhere around them. Most of them had been bound down by the hands that had come out of the ground. Several other fiends had gone down, victims of Keith's SAW and Flynn's deadly knife-fighting skills. Julie was holding off a fiend with her rifle before it got its legs ripped off by the ground-hands.

Matt dashed forward and slashed through the few remaining fiends, then turned back to William. "Stop doing cheap crap or I really will kill you."

"Ah, but you can't unless you actually duel me." William said, smirking.

"Trust me, I'll find a way." Matt said, staring William down grimly. "Don't make me find that way."

"Fine, fine, let's get back to the main event." William said, waving a careless hand. "I won't spawn more fiends if you stop threatening me."

"Do you actually expect us to believe you?" Keith said, prodding a fiend's head with the tip of his SAW. Apparently he was unsatisfied with something, because he pulled the trigger, causing the fiend's head to explode.

"No."

"Of course he doesn't." Flynn said, twirling his knife around unnecessarily. "But he's going to tell us that anyway."

"Just stay on your toes then." Matt said, absorbing his lance into his palm and gesturing upwards with his other hand. The hands that had seized the fiends from below griped the ground and pulled full human bodies up after them, like zombies rising out of the grave. Of course, they were simply spirits that Matt had sent there.

_Did he expect that, or was he just being cautious?_ Drake thought, watching a headless girl rise out of the ground. _Either way, that's just weird._

"Okay." The fiend said. "Let's get back to this, fine, girl?"

"Don't call me 'girl'." Helen said. "Or I'll rip you to pieces."

"Fine then. On the end of your turn, I get to play another bit of my Destiny Board, the Spirit Message 'I'!" A card stuck out from the duel disk on the fiend's arm and he slotted it next to the Destiny Board. A floating "I" appeared next to the "F". "You have three turns." The fiend announced, and drew a card. "Until you are ripped apart by the forces of the Destiny Board. I summon Fox Fire (Fire/Beast/Effect. 300/200) in defense mode! That will end my turn."

"Trying to stall, huh?" Helen said, drawing. "It won't work."

"Ha! You cannot escape destiny."

"Can't she…" Julie said mildly. "I seem to have escaped mine."

"Ah, but people like us can bend that little aspect of life." Matt said. "We are shaped by destiny, but we also shape it."

"That makes little sense." Drake said.

"Don't argue with the sage-ish guy." Keith said. "It will get you nowhere but very confused very fast."

"I summon Chainsaw Insect (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2400/0) in attack mode! Now, I'm not going to attack this turn… because that would give you an extra card, and that would be bad, and not only that, it would be pointless. I'll end my turn."

"Ha! Now it's my turn. And you know what that means…"

"No, I don't. What does it mean?" Helen asked sarcastically.

"Since you ended your turn, Destiny Board gets another letter!" A floating "N" appeared next to the other letters. The fiend drew a card. "Only two more turns until your doom! I hope you're prepared for it. But for now, I'll just summon Peten The Dark Clown (Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 500/1200) in defense mode! That will end my turn."

"Your stalling will get you nowhere." Helen said, and drew a card.

"On the contrary! It has gotten me within two turns of victory!"

"Hmm…" Helen studied her hand.

"From the look on her face right now, I would say that the fiend has a fair point." Keith said.

"Eh, maybe." Matt said. "There are some insect cards with weird effects. If she can use some of those effects well, she can get somewhere. You can never tell."

"Like what kind of effect?" Julie asked.

"Well, anything that could rip apart the opponent's deck and try to get rid of the three copies of one of the spirit messages that the fiend hasn't played yet would be useful, but she may not have a card like that." Matt said, scratching his chin. "Or, a piercing monster would work. Those re-spawning monsters are irksome, but they have weak stats."

"I'm going to summon Pinch Hopper (Earth/Insect/Effect, 1000/1200) in defense mode. That's all I can do for now." Helen said.

"Ha! A pathetic move by a pathetic duelist. And you have squandered yet another turn! For now the next letter of Destiny Board will appear!" A ghostly "A" appeared next to the other letters. The fiend gave it an approving nod. "Now to draw this out one more turn. I summon Giant Rat (Earth/Beast/Effect, 1400/1450) in defense mode! His special ability will allow me to loop in three more monsters to defend me, so have fun breaking this! I end my turn."

"I think I can…" Helen drew a card. "…and this will help. I activate the Spell Card Insect Imitation. By sacrificing one monster on my side of the field, I can special summon an insect from my deck a level higher than the sacrificed monster. So, I'll say good-bye to Pinch Hopper, and I'll bring in the mighty Grasschopper (Earth/Insect/Gemini, 2350/1000) in attack mode! Then, Pinch Hopper's effect activates, allowing me to special summon any insect-type monster I have in my hand. So, I'll bring in Saber Beetle (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2400/800) in attack mode! And if you think that's bad, I'm still not done. I'm going to remove Man-Eater Bug and Insect Knight to special summon Doom Dozer (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2800/2600) in attack mode! And if that wasn't enough for you, I haven't summoned this turn. I'll use my normal summon this turn to make Grasschopper an effect monster!"

"So what? How are you going to destroy me like this?" The fiend said. "There's no way you can do enough damage!"

"Ah, on the contrary. Grasschopper's activated effect allows me to attack all monsters on your side of the field with him."

"No!"

"Go, Grasschopper, cut down Fox Fire!" The giant insect sliced the little beast to pieces. "Now, slice up Peten!"

"Ha! I can remove him to special summon another Peten the Dark Clown!"

"So what, he'll get cut down like the rest!" The insect swiped again, taking off the new Peten's head. Another one appeared to take it's place, only to be cut cleanly in half by the Grasschopper. Then it turned on the Giant Rat, which was actually quivering in fear because of the bug. It met a quick demise at the hands of the Chopper.

"Grr… I'm going to die if this happens again… I summon Black Stego (Earth/Dinosaur/Effect, 1200/2000) in attack mode with the effect of Giant Rat! It changes to defense mode when it is attacked." The dino appeared and roared, only to meet a quick demise at the hands of the frenzied Chopper. In only a few seconds, the fiend's blockade of monsters had been reduced to absolutely nothing.

"Now, this duel is over! Doom Dozer and Saber Beetle, attack him directly and end the duel!"

Helen: 4000 

**Fiend: 0**

The fiend screamed as it was lanced by the beetle, then run over by the Dozer, flattened by the massive bug and laying in a pool of the black fiend blood. Helen breathed a sigh of relief, shuffled her cards together, and turned to face the others. She took a step towards them and suddenly staggered.

"Are you okay?" Drake asked, running up beside her.

"Just… a little tired. I guess that was more intense than I realized." She said. She shook her head and stood straight up. "I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me."

William was absolutely fuming behind them. Not only had his sneak attacks failed, but his fiend had lost to someone who had lost most of the shadow games she had ever played. "THIS ISN'T OVER!!!" He shouted. "I STILL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE!!! AND I WILL WIN!!! YOU…" He pointed ominously in Julie's direction. "…BY THE END OF THIS DUEL YOU WILL BE MINE!" He looked at the last remaining fiend. "KILL HER!!!"


	39. The Final Rounds! The Overlord Rises!

Chapter 39- The Final Rounds! The Overlord Rises!

Julie stepped up to meet the fiend, who looked murderous.

_That fiend looks like he doesn't want to duel, he looks like he wants to tear her to pieces! _Drake thought. _I've never seen one of the smart ones like this… it can't be good._ Apparently Julie thought so too, because she was quavering just a little as she faced him.

"You pitiful little girl…" The fiend snarled. "You are going to die."

"How so? Do you think you can beat me?" She asked.

"Because that's just the way it is! You are going to lose to me, you know it! Just give yourself up to the darkness, and that way you will not suffer so much!"

"Somehow." Matt said. "I think that giving one's self up to the darkness would not be much less painful than losing a card game."

"A Shadow card game!" The fiend said. Matt just shrugged. The fiend gave him a dirty look and returned to Julie. "Either way, you're going to die here! There's no way you can defeat me."

"Back it up. I'm sick of you fiends. All you do is talk. Now let's do this." Julie activated her duel disk.

"Fine!" The fiend raised its duel disk arm.

"Let's duel!"

Julie: 4000 

**Fiend: 4000**

"I'll go first." the fiend said, and drew. "I'm going to set a monster in defense mode, set a card facedown, and end my turn. Go ahead, you failure."

Julie raised an eyebrow. "Failure? How do you know that? The duel just started." She drew a card. "Hm… I activate Dark World Dealings. This card allows us to both draw one card…" She pulled a card out of her duel disk while the fiend did that same. "Then, we both must discard a card from our hand." She slipped a card into her graveyard. "I discard Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World. When he is discarded from my hand to the graveyard, I am allowed to destroy one monster on the field. So your facedown monster is gone."

"That was Crystal Beast- Emerald Tortoise. If he's destroyed while on the field, he 'crystallizes' into a continuous spell card." The fiend's monster was encased in a large emerald.

Julie looked unconcerned. "So what? He can't defend you there. I summon Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1600/1300) in attack mode! I attack you directly."

"I activate Crystal Raigeki. I send one Crystal Beast from my spell/trap card zones to the graveyard and use it to destroy one of your cards. So, Beiige is gone." the fiend smirked. "Failed. You'll never win."

"Oh, shut UP." Julie said. "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"That's not going to help you against me." The fiend said, drawing.

"Aww, is the wittle fiend going to hurt me wit his pwetty jewelry?" Julie taunted. The fiend shot here a nasty look.

"Shut up! Just because I use a different deck from you doesn't mean you can make fun of me for it! At least I'm not as ugly as my cards!" The fiend shot back.

Julie's eye twitched. _Uh-oh, he really pushed her buttons now._ Drake thought. _This is going to get ugly._

"Hey, what's with Julie?" Keith said. Drake opened his mouth to speak, but Julie interrupted him.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!! SHUT YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I HIT YOU SO HARD YOU'LL BE TALKING OUT YOUR ASS!!!" Julie shouted. Suddenly the entire sky went dark. Drake slid back a few feet, as though he had been hit by something invisible.

_Damn it, she has to calm down! Good thing I was ready for that, or I would have ended up like the others…_ Drake thought, lowering the arm that had been shielding his face. He turned to his left to see Matt totally unfazed. _…except him, of course. Invulnerable as always. _

"I see that you have seen this happen before." Matt said, looking at Julie in a strange way. "Apparently, they haven't." He gestured behind him, where Flynn, Keith, and Helen had all been thrown head over heels into a snowdrift.

"Do you know what it is?" Drake asked.

"I have a few vague ideas, as always." Matt said, walking over the Flynn, grabbing his leg, and yanking him forcefully from the snowdrift. "But I'm not quite sure." He moved on and pulled Helen out of the drift a little more gently.

"What the HELL was that all about?" Flynn said.

"Well, Julie got really pissed off and did… something." Drake said. "I've seen it once before, but I'm not sure what it was."

"Well, I'm certainly glad she doesn't get pissed off that much often." Keith said, brushing snow off of his face and out of his hair. "I'd hate to be getting blasted all the time and thrown about like a rag doll."

"Well, she usually only gets pissed off when, one, someone insults her cards, and two, someone calls her ugly. This time wasn't that ugly, last time it happened when we were discussing the new Dark World cards that came out and one of the other girls decided to insult her for liking such ugly cards, then called her ugly herself. Well, Julie got angry like that, started swearing at the girl. Strange thing is, with every curse word she used it looked like the other girl was getting hit across the face. And on the end of Julie's sentence, the other girl's head was ripped from her shoulders."

"It took a miracle to keep that quiet." Helen said. "It was almost as hard as when Matt killed that one guy."

"Hey, that wasn't my fault. The kid snuck into my room. The door was locked for a reason." Matt said.

"Well, yes, but you don't see us killing anyone who comes in our rooms when we don't want them there!" Helen pointed out.

Matt shrugged. "Oh well. Water under the bridge. How about we focus on now, at which time the fate of the world is at stake, as are your lives?"

"That would be a good idea." Flynn said.

_Now let's hope that Julie can calm down enough so that she doesn't lose focus._ Drake thought. _Then again… somehow I doubt the fiend's going to be on his game either._ Drake smirked in the direction of the fiend Julie had been dueling. He had been sent sprawling by whatever Julie had done. He was just now getting to his feet.

"Okay… still my turn!" The fiend said, picking a card out of the snow and shaking it off. "I summon Crystal Beast- Amber Mammoth (Earth/Beast/Effect, 1700/1600) in attack mode! And since I destroyed your only monster last turn, I'm going to use him to attack you directly!"

Julie: 2300 

**Fiend: 4000**

The Mammoth's tusk hit Julie in the stomach, sending her sliding back, bleeding from the point it hit. She cringed but didn't seem otherwise phased. "Is that all?" She asked.

"I set one more card and end my turn." The fiend smirked. "Soon, you're going to die the death you've always had coming."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" Julie said, drawing a card. "Seriously, your banter is irritating. It's the same thing over and over, and it has the same weak effect it had the first time. Now, back to business. I summon Brron, Mad King of Dark World (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1800/400), in attack mode, of course! He'll tear apart your Mammoth!"

Julie: 2300 

**Fiend: 3900**

The fiend winced as the Mad King's attack tore through his monster. A giant shell of amber rose up around the beast and covered it. "Like my tortoise, my mammoth becomes a continuous spell card when destroyed!" The fiend said.

"So what? That'll just take up more space for you." Julie looked at her hand. "Anyway, when Brron does damage, I can discard a card from my hand to the graveyard. I think I'll discard Broww, Huntsman of Dark World to draw one card." Julie sent Broww to the graveyard and drew her new card. The corner of her mouth twitched into a smile, just for a second, then looked up. "I activate Card Destruction, which forces both of us to discard out entire hands, and then draw till we have the same number of cards in our hand as before it was played. So, I discard three cards. How about you?"

"Three as well." The fiend said, putting his hand into the graveyard and drawing some new cards. "Hm…"

Julie discarded her cards and drew three new ones. "Fortunately for you none of those were Dark World monsters, so I can't do anything with them. However, now I have you right where I want you. Your turn."

"Good. Now I can beat you." the fiend drew a card. "I summon Crystal Beast- Sapphire Pegasus (Wind/Beast/Effect, 1800/1200) in attack mode! When it's summoned, I can bring one Crystal Beast from my hand, deck, or graveyard and place it in my spell card zone! I bring Crystal Beast- Cobalt Eagle from my deck and place it in as a crystal." A giant chunk of cobalt appeared next to the fiend's amber. "Then, I activate my facedown card, Crystal Beacon! Since I have two 'crystallized' monsters, I can special summon a crystal beast from my deck! So here's Crystal Beast- Amethyst Cat (Earth/Beast/Effect, 1200/400) in attack mode! Now, Sapphire Pegasus, attack the Mad King!"

"But then they'll both be destroyed!" Drake said.

"So what?" Matt said. "That doesn't matter to the fiend. He has three Crystal Beasts on the field still. He still has lots of options."

There was a large explosion as both monsters went down. The fiend smiled. "Now, Crystal Cat, attack her directly!"

Julie: 1100 

**Fiend: 3900**

Julie fell back, bleeding from the two slash marks the Cat had left. The fiend laughed.

"Come now, is that really all you've got? I haven't even used my best cards yet!" The fiend laughed again.

"Neither have I." Julie said, getting weakly to her feet. "You finished?"

"With you in that state? Of course!"

"Fine then…" Julie drew, and shook her head. "I set one monster in defense mode, and end my turn."

"That's no fun!" The fiend drew. "Hmm…I think that I will use the Cat's effect to attack you directly!"

"I activate Waboku, so that you cannot do damage to me this turn."

"So what? You're going to do soon enough." The fiend said. "I end my turn."

Julie drew her card. "I set two cards facedown, then summon Broww, Hunstman of Dark World (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1400/800) in attack mode. Broww, attack his Crystal Beast!"

Julie: 1100 

**Fiend: 3700**

The fiend shook his head. "You fool, you keep sealing your fate! My cat will now turn into a continuous spell card as well, and that gives me three crystallized monsters!"

"So what? They're not doing you much good there." Julie commented.

"Oh, shut up. You just haven't seen the power of them. Are you finished?"

"Yes. I'm not playing this last card just yet."

"Fine then, eat this!" the fiend drew. "Ha! This game is as good as over! Now, you have destroyed every Crystal Beast known to man… all 7 of them! So now I am allowed to special summon my most powerful monster…"

"Oh, crap…" Flynn said.

"It has to be." Keith said. "This is going to be ugly."

"I special summon the mighty Rainbow Dragon (Light/Dragon/Effect, 4000/0) in attack mode!"

Julie stared up at the powerful monster. "So what?"

"I'm going to attack your monster and end this duel with your blood splattered all over the field!" The fiend's dragon reared back and spat a mighty burst of light at Julie.

"I activate Negate Attack! Now your turn must end without an attack."

"So what? You've bought a very small amount of time. What are you going to do in this situation?" The fiend said, smirking confidently.

Julie drew a card. She looked nervous. "I set one monster in defense mode, switch Broww to defense mode, and end my turn."

The fiend drew and smirked again. "This is the end of the game for you! I now activate Crystal Blessing, which allows me to crystallize up to two monsters from my graveyard. I'll only take one, my Sapphire Pegasus. Then, I activate Crystal Abundance! This spell card will destroy all cards on the field, and then allow me to special summon as many Crystal Beasts from my graveyard as you lost! And since you have five cards, I can special summon enough monsters to destroy you in one turn!"

"That's too bad." Julie said. "Because you just sealed your own loss. I activate the trap card Dark Deal! By paying 1000 life points, I can change the effect of that card you just played."

Julie: 100 

**Fiend: 3700**

Julie seemed to shrivel up a little as the life points were drained.

"So what are you changing the effect to?" The fiend asked.

"You must now randomly discard one card from my hand." Julie said, waving her one hand card in front of the fiend. "But I only have one…"

"What is it?!? What did I get rid of?"

"You didn't get rid of anything. You brought him out." Julie said. "You just allowed me to special summon Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 2500/1800)! And when he is special summoned in this way, I am allowed to destroy all of your monsters!"

"No!" The fiend panicked. "That leaves me with no cards to defend myself! I can't do anything."

"That's right." Julie drew a card. "I won't need another card or another turn to defeat you. I switch Broww into attack mode, and have the Overlord and his Huntsman attack you directly!"

Julie: 100 

**Fiend: 0**

The fiend exploded, a little more violently than usual. Julie fell to her knees, groaning.

_What's wrong with her…?_ Drake thought, dropping his rifle and running out to her. "Are you okay?"

"It… hurts." Julie said. Drake helped her to her feet.

"Don't worry, it's over. You don't have to do anything more." Drake said. "You've done what you needed to do, and then some." Julie needed and Drake began to help her off the field.

"DRAKE STIZEN!!!" William shouted. "YOU HAVE TROUBLED ME FOR TOO LONG, YOU AND YOUR SUPPORTING THAT GIRL EVERYWHERE SHE GOES, I'M GOING TO DUEL YOU RIGHT NOW!!!"

Drake turned his head to face William, not letting go of Julie. "I accept." He said simply. William laughed.

"You won't be so calm after you've faced the Hell deck!" William said. "I've waited a long time for this. Let's see how much blood I can drag out of your body before you die! And you realize that if I win this duel, I still win! The fate of the planet is at stake! Let's begin!"

Author's note: yes, this duel with William will be the end of the story, obviously. I have to develop some original cards to form his deck, though, so don't expect the next chapter to be out too soon. But enjoy!


	40. The Final Rounds! Cataclysmic Duel

Author's Note- Here it is at last! The final duel, the final battle. I hope it lives up to the epicness it deserves!

Chapter 40- The Final Rounds! Cataclysmic Duel

Drake helped Julie over to the others, and Matt took her from him.

"Are you ready, Drake?" He asked.

"I hope so." Drake said. "This is gonna be a hard duel. I mean, William may be a sub-par duelist, but he's got a pretty good deck."

"I'm thinking he's probably gotten a bit better than last time." Keith said. "I mean, he's probably been sitting around doing virtually nothing lately. For all we know, he's been dueling and dueling and dueling to get accustomed to that deck and get good with it."

"That may be." Flynn said. "But this is still William. You don't suddenly get a huge intelligence boost in the time we've given him since the last time. Drake should be fine."

"I doubt that." Matt said. He was holding Julie close to him with both of his arms, as if to protect her, while one of his other arms was fishing around in a cloak pocket for something. "He's playing the Hell deck, it has a tendency to take control of whoever wields it. It's one of those double-edged weapons that usually corrupts a person if they use it." He looked at Drake. "Your deck will be torn to shreds by it."

"I have to try, don't I?" Drake said. "I mean, I can't back down now!"

"I know. Which is why you need to use these." Matt produced a deck of cards from his cloak and offered them to Drake.

"What is that…?" Drake asked, taking the cards.

"It's your only chance of winning this duel. There's only two types of cards that are effective against his monsters; one is my Heaven deck, the other set is these." The arm grabbed Drake by the shoulder and pulled his ear up to Matt's mouth. "Whatever you do, do not let him summon the Lord of Hell. If that happens all is lost. Do not let him summon the Lord of Hell." Matt released his shoulder. Drake took his normal deck out of his duel disk and slotted Matt's.

"But… how am I supposed to know how to play this?" Drake asked.

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. Make stuff up as you go along. That's all that I ever do."

"That explains a lot." Keith said.

Drake stepped up to face William. "Are you ready?"

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time." William said. "For the moment I defeat you. By the rules of engagement, in a duel with the world at stake each player must be given 8000 life points instead of the usual 4000, so as to give each side a better chance at a comeback." He snarled a little, as if the rule just slowed him down. "But it doesn't matter, because you're going to die! You're going to feel every last point of damage I bleed out of you!"

"Sure." Drake said. "But can we at least get started?"

"Very well!" William said, whipping out an evil-looking duel disk.

"Let's duel!" They both said.

"With the world at stake!" William added.

Drake: 8000 

**William: 8000**

"I'll start!" Drake said, pulling out a new card and looking at his hand. _Hm? What are these cards? I've seen these names before… "Hero"? What to do, what to do… this looks okay._ "I set one monster in defense mode, and end my turn!"

"What a pathetic move! I'll show you the true power!" William drew a card. "I summon the mighty Earthroaming Demon (Hell/Demon/Effect, 1800/1200) in attack mode!" A black vortex appeared in the ground. A red, clawed hand reached out of it and pulled up a monstrous creature. It seemed humanoid, except that it had spines running down its back, red skin, and a hideous face. "If he battles a certain type of monster, that monster will be destroyed at the end of the damage step! And by a certain type, I mean any monster that is not of two very distinct types! Earthroaming Demon, attack his monster!"

Drake's facedown monster flipped over to reveal a regal looking man with a sword. The demon hit the sword and was thrown back by the man. "You attacked Hero- Richard the Lionheart(Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1600/1200)! He cannot be destroyed in battle!"

"Curses… so he gave you THAT deck? Well, not that it matters." William said, as if to himself. "Unfortunately, that is one of the two types of monsters my demon will not kill on contact!"

"What, warriors?"

"No, Heros!"

_Well, that's good._ Drake thought. _That's probably all I have!_ "I see."

"I shall set a card and I end my turn." William said.

"Good." Drake drew a card. "I summon Hero- Peter the Great (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 2100/900) in attack mode!" The Russian Czar rose up, riding a horse. _Ah, crap. I probably shouldn't have done that. _Drake thought, glancing at William's facedown. _But… Peter has to attack by his own effect, so I guess I have no choice!_ "I attack the demon with Peter!"

Peter the Great rode past the demon and hacked off its head with one swipe. Blood spurted from William's neck as the demon was decapitated, but the flow soon stopped.

Drake: 8000 

**William: 7700**

Drake stared at William, who was rubbing his neck. There was a huge scar where the blood had been spurting from. "What the HELL was that?"

"Damn you, I wanted to hit you first!" William shouted at him. "Whenever one of our monsters gets killed, we take the same damage they did, only it will heal completely on us, depending on how high our life points are. Eventually, one of us will be reduced to a bloody pile while the other stands victorious! And I know it shall be me."

"Sure, whatever." Drake pulled a card out his hand and checked it. _This looks cheap. Perfect. _"I set one card facedown, and that will end my turn."

"Fine then!" William said, and drew a card. "Your pathetic cards don't scare me away! I summon Tormenting Demon (Hell/Demon/Effect, 1600/1000) in attack mode!" A dark blue demon, much like the first, reached out of a new vortex in the ground and pulled itself out. "Then I activate my field spell card The Pits of Hell! With this spell card on the field, I can send the top card of my deck to the graveyard to special summon any demon-type monster from my graveyard, once per turn!"

"That's fairly broken." Keith said.

"So are basically all the cards being used in this duel." Matt said. "Both of these decks were lost forever thousands of years ago, they were lost for a reason. One, the Hell deck is corrupting to a person's soul. Second, the Hero deck that Drake is using is kinda sacred in a way. It contains little bits of the souls of every person that is represented in the deck, so in a way it's alive. It can't be played like any other deck, you have to respect those cards."

"You gave _Drake_ a deck like that?" Flynn said. "He's not exactly careful with what he does."

"I would have to agree that this may have been a mistake." Helen said. "Is there any drawback if you don't treat these 'cards' right?"

"Well, apart from the fact that they might kill you if you're enough of a jerk, no." Matt said. "But Drake's a noble soul, he'll be fine. Those cards can feel that, and frankly, I think they'd like him to be amongst them some day."

"What do you mean by that?" Keith asked. "They could suck him in and make him a trading card or something like that?"

"Oh no." Matt laughed. "That won't happen. I said that one day they want him to join them, meaning that someone would get a card created for him to be added to that deck. It holds only the greatest heroes of all time, and since he is possibly going to cap off saving the world from pretty much eternal darkness, that qualifies him."

"I see." Keith said.

"What does that make us, chopped liver?" Flynn said.

"Not exactly, but now is not the time to debate importance to the world."

"Yes, shut up, I'm going to stuff this little uprising right now." William said. "I send the top card of my deck to the graveyard and special summon my Earthroaming demon back from the graveyard!"

"Your point?" Drake asked. "He's not as strong as Peter the Great."

"Tormenting Demon, attack Peter the Great!" William said, smirking. The demon raised its clawed hand towards Peter and fired off some weird stream of energy. Peter raised his sword and hit it, only to have it bend around the sword and go for his head. It hit him and he fell off his horse, wallowing in some kind of agony.

"What the heck was that?" Drake said. "And why isn't your monster gone?!?"

"During my battle phase, Tormenting Demon takes no damage when battling attack position monsters, and every monster he attacks has its attack points halved until the end of the turn!" William said. "Now, Earthroaming Demon, destroy Peter the 'Great'!" The other demon ran across the field to the almost defenseless Russian, who raised his sword in a weak defense. The demon carelessly knocked it away and plunged its clawed arm into the Czar's chest, pulling out his heart. At the same time, Drake felt a strange sensation, as if he was suddenly hollow, then, blood began to gush out of a hole in his chest that hadn't been there moments before. The flow quickly stopped.

Drake: 7250 

**William: 7700**

William laughed as Drake spilled a huge amount of blood on the ground. "Feels great, doesn't it?!? Are you ready for some more? Because that's all that's going to happen! More blood! More pain! And then, you'll die, after I've bled every last drop out of you!"

"You're insane." Drake said weakly, still recovering from the shock of having his chest ripped open by no physical means. William simply laughed maniacally.

"So what? At least I'm going to control the world!"

"Not if I can help it… when Peter's destroyed in battle, I can add one card from my deck to my hand." Drake looked into his deck and noticed a critical-looking card. He pulled it out of the deck and added it to his hand. "Is that all you're going to do?"

William nodded, still smiling evilly. "I end."

"Good." Drake drew another card. _With this card, I don't have to be worried about attack, even if he destroys my monsters. Actually, especially if he destroys my monsters… haha._ "I activate my own Field Spell Card, the Monument to All Heroes! This card will gain additional effects based on how many heroes are entombed. Not only that, it will rid the field of the Pits of Hell!"

"That's what you think!" William said. "But the Pits of Hell cannot be removed from the field once they are there, they are quite content to co-exist with your field, knowing full well that they will soon overtake it!"

_Curses…_ Drake thought. _I thought I could cut off his special summoning._

"This is going to be weird." Helen said. "Two field spells at once?"

"Yep." Matt said. "This is going to be really interesting."

"I summon Hero- Ulysses S. Grant (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1800/1600) in attack mode!" The Union Civil War hero arose riding a horse. "Then, I shift Richard the Lionheart to attack mode!" The king stood up and flourished his sword. "Now, because of my Monument and because there is one Hero in my graveyard, all of my heroes gain 300 attack and defense points! Now, Richard, attack the Tormenting Demon!"

"Not so fast!" William said. "I activate my facedown card, Demon Crush! Now, I tribute one demon type monster, like Earthroaming Demon…" The monster turned a deep red color. "…and then, destroy all of your monsters on the field with 1500 or more attack points, as well as all your facedown spell and trap cards!"

"But that's basically everything I have!" Drake said.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" William said. His demon exploded, killing both of Drake's monsters and tearing apart his facedown card.

"I… end." Drake said. _This is going to be really tough! Much tougher than I thought!_

"Good!" William drew a card. "I attack you directly with my remaining demon!"

"I activate the second effect of my Monument!" Drake said. "While there are 3-4 heroes in my graveyard, I can activate this effect to negate all damage caused by one card you control, once per turn!" A barrier appeared between the hulking demon and Drake, deflecting the attack. "So I take no damage."

"Grr… I end my turn there." William said.

Drake drew a card. _I sure wish I could go on the offensive. _He thought. _But I've used up all my good attack monsters at the moment._ "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Ha. You're pathetic." William drew a card. "I summon Demonic Spawn Lv. 2(Hell/Demon/Effect, 1000/1000) in attack mode." A smaller humanoid appeared on the field. Its demonic features were a little more recessed than those of its larger counterparts. "He may be pathetic and weak now, but he will soon grow into an insanely powerful being! Now, Tormenting Demon, attack his facedown monster!"

"Too bad. My facedown monster was Hero- Mahatma Gandhi, with 2200 defense points because of my monument."

Drake: 7250 

**William: 7100**

William flinched as the attack was reflected. "Fine then, I set one card and end my turn."

_Nothing more than I expected._ Drake thought as he drew. _It's probably something that will activate when I attack, but what choice do I have? I don't want to see how much bigger that spawn can get. _"I summon Hero- Joshua the Israelite(Light/Warrior/Effect, 1900/1900)!" The Israelite general that had won them their old homeland rose up, holding a long spear in his hand. "Now, attack his Demonic Spawn!"

"I activate Hell Barrier! This negates your attack and ends your turn, but only if I have the Pits of Hell on the field!" William said. A wall of fire jumped up out of a crevasse, shielding William's monsters from attacks.

"Fine then, I end." Drake said.

"Not as if you had a choice!" William said. He drew.

"This could get ugly, especially if that Spawn gets bigger now." Keith said.

"Well, not as ugly as you'd think." Matt said. "You see, I don't think that William took much notice of the Hero deck, so he doesn't know the abilities of each card beyond their attack and defense points. Or what any of them are, for that matter."

"You! Shut up!" William shouted. "I sacrifice the Demonic Spawn to special summon Demon Lv. 4 (Hell/Demon/Effect, 2200/1800) in attack mode!" The little demon was engulfed in a pillar of hellish light and came out of it bigger, uglier, and meaner. "Now, Tormenting Demon, attack his Israelite!" The demon rushed in and thrust its arm out at the great warrior's face. Joshua almost lazily deflected the attack and stuck his spear through the demon. Then he tossed the corpse back toward William, where it disintegrated. William gasped as he felt the spear get rammed into his monster.

"But, wait! That can't have happened!" William shouted. "My monster is indestructible in battle during my battle phase!"

"In battle, maybe. But not to effects. Any monster that battles the Israelite must be destroyed at the end of the damage step. So, while you take no damage, your monster dies." Drake said

"Either way, your monster still loses half of its attack points!" William said, as Joshua fell to a knee, apparently feeling the same thing that Peter had had earlier. "Now, Demon, kill him!" The newly raised Demon ran at Joshua, who lifted his spear in a feeble defense. The demon ran itself onto the spear, but before it died it gashed the Israelite across the chest. Blood ran out of new wounds on Drake's chest, but they soon healed.

Drake: 6150 

**William: 7100**

William attempted another evil smile, but apparently the pain of having two creatures destroyed in one turn was too much. "I will now move to my main phase two, during which I will use the Pits of Hell to special summon my Demon back to the field." He sent the top card of his deck to the graveyard and the Demon rose back onto the field out of a circle of fire. "That will end my turn."

"Damn it…" Drake said, and drew a card. _If he destroys my only monster, I'll have too many Heroes in the graveyard to use the Monument to negate damage. I can't let that happen, but I can't use any of these cards right now!_

"Drake's starting to look a lot worse." Flynn said.

"He's turning whiter." Helen said. "I've never seen anyone that pale."

"The wounds are drawing the blood away from his face. The body thinks it needs to repair the wounds the game inflicts because he's never played this game before, so his body doesn't know better." Matt said. "So he'll start feeling lightheaded if he tries to do too much too fast."

"Will it kill him?"

"Not until the end of the duel, and then only if he loses."

"I have to end my turn." Drake said. _Damn it! I don't know what to do!_ _Now it really hurts to not know what I'm trying to do here!_

"Ahahahaha… you're such a failure!" William said and drew a card. "You can't even pick up on a deck within the first five turns of a duel! Now, I'm going to tear through your defenses and take you down! I summon Hellfury (Hell/Demon/Effect, 2100/0) in attack mode!" A giant mass of flames rose out of another black vortex. It seemed to be humanoid in shape. "Now, I equip him with the spell card Demon Force! This gives him an extra 400 attack points, and you cannot negate the damage my monsters inflict in battle! Now, Hellfury, incinerate Gandhi!"

Drake turned away as the giant inferno attacked. He felt a wave of heat rush over him that was so intense he thought he was going to melt on the spot. Then suddenly it was over, and he was left unguarded.

"Now, Demon Lv. 4, attack him directly!" William said. The beast rushed across the field, one of its massive hands raised, ready to strike. Drake instinctively put his arm up to protect himself. The demon simply knocked it aside an gored him with one of the spikes protruding from its shoulder. The spike hit him just to the side of his heart, boring its way through his lungs. He fell to the ground, gasping for breath and clutching at the massive hole.

Drake: 3950 

**William: 7100**

William laughed as Drake writhed in pain on the ground. "I knew you didn't have it in you! You just can't cut it when you fight a real duelist!"

Drake slowly got to his feet. The wounds were starting to take longer to close, but the most recent one was gone now. "You're a real duelist? What about all those times I beat the crap out of you?"

"Ha! Those were just flukes. I was holding back. Now I'm going to hold nothing back, and I'm going to slaughter you, quite literally! I hope you enjoy your bloody demise." William laughed again.

"Are you stupid or something?" Drake said. "There's no way you were holding back. Are you done yet?"

"I advance to my end phase, and since the Demon inflicted damage to your life points, I can level him up to Demon Prince Lv. 6!" The Demon was again engulfed in a pillar of infernal light and emerged even larger, a deeper red color, and with large wings sprouting from its back. (Hell/Demon/Effect, 2800/2200) "Now that I have summoned him, the game is just about up! That will be the end of my turn."

_Now what am I going to do?!?_ Drake thought as he drew. _All I've got is… the Monument to All Heroes!_ Drake glanced at the card in his hand. _Yeah, this'll work._ "I summon Hero- William the Marshal (Light/Warrior/Effect, 2600/2000) in attack mode!" The greatest knight of all time appeared on the field, his sword held straight up and down in front of him.

"Wait! That's a level six monster! You have to sacrifice a monster to summon him!" William looked smug. "What, have you completely lost it?"

"Not quite." Drake said. "Now that there are 5 Hero monsters in my graveyard, I do not have to sacrifice to summon Hero monsters of level 5 or higher. Furthermore, the presence of five Heroes in my graveyard allows me to special summon the strongest monsters in the entire deck! And here's the first: he can only be special summoned if you have more cards on your side of the field than me, and more life points than I have. Since both of those are true, I'm going to special summon him right now- The Hero of America- George Washington (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 3500/3200)!" The great American general and president rose up next to the Marshal, his rifle at his side and staring determinedly at William's monsters. "Now who's down? Both of them still gain attack points from the Monument, 300 each… (William the Marshal, 2900, Washington, 3800)."

"No! You can't do that!" William said.

"Who said?" Drake said. "William the Marshal, attack his Hellfury!" The Marshal swung his sword through the blaze of fire, which instantly dissipated into nothingness. William staggered as a gash appeared from his shoulder to the opposite side of his body.

Drake: 3950 

**William: 6700**

"Now, Washington, attack his Demon Prince!" The first American president leveled his rifle on the demon and shot it in the eye, killing it instantly. William screamed as his eye was suddenly put out, then repaired itself.

Drake: 3950 

**William: 5700**

"You are going to pay for that." William said.

"I doubt it." Matt said. "Now that Drake has five Heroes in his graveyard, he has access to some of the most powerful cards in all the game. Though some are a little tricky to summon…"

"I'm going to end my turn now." Drake said. _Now I see! The Monument effect that negates damage is only meant to hold you over 'til you get one of these tanks out onto the field! And once you do… it's over for your opponent._

"Fine then!" William drew a card. "I set one card facedown and set a monster in defense mode! That is all, for now."

"Good. I'll tear through it now." Drake said, and drew. "I'm going to attack your monster with William!"

"That's quite ironic." Flynn said. "William attacking William?"

"I suppose it is." Matt said.

"The monster you attacked was Hell Knight!" William said after recovering from the shock of the attack. "When he's destroyed in battle, I can special summon any level 4 or lower Demon-type monster from my deck to the field. I special summon another Hell Knight in defense mode!"

"Washington, shoot it down!" Drake said.

"You don't get it, do you? Now I special summon another Tormenting Demon!" William said. "Are you done yet?"

"No, I set one card and end my turn after that."

"Good." William drew a card. "I activate the Pits of Hell's effect again, now to special summon Demon Prince again!" He sent the top card of his deck to the graveyard again and the Prince re-appeared. "Now, Tormenting Demon, attack Washington and halve his attack points!" The demon cast its evil spell at the American, who fell to a knee and nearly dropped his gun. "Now, Demon Prince, attack him and kill him!" The Prince ran up and slashed the American General across the arm, but instead of being destroyed, Washington vanished from the field. "Wait, what the hell just happened?"

"I just activated Washington's effect." Drake said. "If he would be destroyed in battle, I can instead return him to my hand and I will take no damage. Furthermore, you can't attack again with that monster."

"Fine then." William said. "That's okay. I activate another Demon Force spell card on my Prince and then activate the Trap Card Straight to Hell! This card forces us to discard our entire hands to the graveyard and draw four new cards!"

_Crud! There went two of my strongest cards…_ Drake thought as he sent his cards to the graveyard and drew four more. _But this should work…_ He thought as he checked his new hand.

"I end my turn." William said.

"Okay." Drake drew another card. "I'm going to activate the Hero's Sacrifice, which allows me to sacrifice one Hero monster I control to destroy the monster with the most attack points on your side of the field."

"Hahahaha… you fool!" William said. "That's a trap card, and it targets the Demon Prince!"

"So what?" Drake said.

"He negates trap cards that target him, so you just tributed away a monster for nothing!" William laughed again.

_Damn it… foiled at every turn!_ "Fine then, I'll summon Hero- General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 1900/1800) in defense mode. By summoning him, I can special summon one level 4 or lower Hero warrior-type monster from my hand. So, I'll special summon Hero- Emperor Constantine (Light/Warrior/Effect, 1800/1500) in defense mode as well." The great WWII general and the Roman Emperor appeared in the field, defending Drake. "That's all."

"But not quite." William said. "During your end phase, because the Demon Prince negated a trap card with his effect this turn, I can sacrifice him to special summon his most powerful form. So, welcome the Arch Demon!" The pillar of infernal light returned once more, and this time the change was complete. The demon stood over twelve feet tall, was a sinister blood red and had rippling muscles. The spikes were gone now, and the wings more refined, less leathery and more elegant, like bird wings. It carried a long scythe as tall as it was. (Hell/Demon/Effect, 3800/3600)

"Well, I told Drake to not let him summon the Lord of Hell, but I should have told him about that, as well." Matt said. "Oh well, too late now. Can't change the past."

"What did you tell him about that deck?" Helen asked. "Exactly what is in it?"

"Well, there are really three cards that you need to watch out for in that deck. The first is the Arch Demon, which William just summoned. The greatest threat is the Lord of Hell, who is all but invincible. The third… well, if I say it, I'll probably bring it down upon us, won't I?" Matt said.

"By that superstition, you've already brought this Hell Lord down on Drake." Keith said.

"Well, I wouldn't want to screw him over even more now, would I?" Matt said.

"I doubt you can screw him over even more than you already have." Flynn said.

"Either way, I'd rather not." Matt said. "Just hope it doesn't come out on us."

"Stop gabbing over there! It's my turn!" William drew a card. "I summon Possessed Being (Hell/Demon, 2000/0)!" A crazed-looking human being appeared on the field. He seemed to be having problems controlling himself. "Now I'm going to tear you apart. Arch Demon, attack his General!" In one quick swipe the General was gone, and Drake felt as if his upper body had just been separated from his lower half, and he nearly fell over. William just smirked. "Now, Possessed Being, attack his Emperor!" The man ran forward, and, with unnaturally elongated claws, tore through the Emperor. Each swipe left a bloody mark on Drake.

_This… is getting bad. _Drake thought. _And now he's going to attack directly… no… I'm losing…_

"Tormenting Demon, attack him directly!" William said. The demon smiled evilly, much like its evil summoner, and raised its hand toward Drake. Suddenly terrible thoughts filled Drake's mind, every possible horrible thing that could happen at that moment suddenly had, everyone else was dead, William had won, and he, Drake, was all that was left. And then it was gone.

Drake: 2350 

**William: 5700**

Drake fell to his knees. The pain was almost too much. William was laughing. "Is that the best you can throw at me? Are you ready to give up yet?"

"Not… yet." Drake said, getting slowly to his feet. "I'm going to win… somehow. I don't know how, but I'll do it. But where to start…"

"What… what's going on?" Julie asked, finally stirring from her unconscious state in Matt's arms. "What happened?"

"You won your duel, don't worry, but you passed out from being put too close to death." Matt said. "Drake's dueling William right now. Don't worry, you need to relax now."

"Wait- Drake's dueling William?!?" She said, suddenly regaining her strength and pulling away from Matt. She saw the blood pools beneath both of the duelists, and the seemingly hopeless situation Drake was in. "Oh no… what kind of game have they been playing?"

"Basically the same one you were playing, except for the most part it's real." Matt said.

"That's horrible! Drake could die!" Julie said.

"He could." Matt said. "But if he does, you won't be around long enough to grieve for him, because we'll all be dead. This isn't about one life. It's about the world in general. Now, lend him your support."

"Why don't you?" She asked. "You're a motivating person."

"Ah, but only sometimes. I'm not feeling too motivating right now."

"Oh, fine." Julie turned to Drake. "You'd better not lose this, Drake! I like being alive!"

"Sometimes it's hard to tell if you do, with you throwing yourself into all sorts of complicated situations." Drake said, smiling.

"Oh, shut up." She said. "I blame Matt!"

"Oh, that's the easy way out, isn't it, blame the dead guy!" Matt said, throwing his hands into the air.

"Sure." Julie said. Drake smiled. Her support was like an enhancing fluid pouring into him, giving him more strength. He drew his card with renewed confidence. Keith leaned over and whispered in Flynn's ear.

"I smell a Drake Zerg rush coming on." He said.

"I start by activating A Hero Returns! With this spell card, I can bring back one Hero monster from my graveyard. So, I bring back Hero- Alexander the Great (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 2500/1200)!"

"Wait, where did he come from?" William said. "I never sent him to the graveyard!"

"You did it with Straight to Hell, duh." Drake said. "Now, I remove three warrior-type monsters from my graveyard to special summon The Hero of Asia- Genghis Khan (Earth/Warrior/Effect, 3600/3100) in attack mode! Then I'll activate Hero Med Corps Call, to special summon Hero- Florence Nightingale (Light/Spellcaster/Effect, 800/2100) in defense mode from my deck, and then normal summon Hero- Clara Barton (Light/Spellcaster/Effect, 800/2100) in defense mode!"

"Yep, you called it." Flynn said.

"So what if you summon all those monsters? You still can't defeat me!" William said.

"Yes I can, because Genghis Khan's effect gives all warrior-type monsters with the same Attribute as himself 300 extra attack and defense points for every monster I have excluding Khan himself! So that gives Alexander the Great an extra 900 points! (3400) Not to mention he gains attack points for the Monument, as do all my cards. (Khan, 3900, Alexander, 3700, Nightingale(d) 2400, Barton(d) 2400)"

"No! Now you can take down my Demon! That's not possible!"

"YES!" Julie shouted. "He can kill off most of William's monsters!"

"Genghis Khan, attack his Demon now!" The Mongol rushed forward, and, with a single swipe, disarmed the Demon, and, with a second swipe, cut off its head. Blood rushed from the wound in William's neck again.

Drake: 2350 

**William: 5600**

_That's just the first part. _Drake thought. "Now, Alexander, attack his Tormenting Demon!" The Macedonian general rode up to the sinister creature and skewered it effortlessly, leaving William with another temporary hole in his stomach as well.

Drake: 2350 

**William: 3500**

"With that, I think I have caused enough damage, and I will end." Drake said.

"Fine then." William snarled. He seemed extremely displeased with something, but his mood changed when he drew. "Ha! This is the end! I am about to summon a creature with so much power you won't believe it! First, I activate the Pits of Hell to special summon Hell Knight from the graveyard." William sent a card from the top of his deck and the armored demon appeared again. "Then, I normal summon the Lesser Demon." A smaller Earthroaming demon appeared.

"What does he do?" Drake asked.

"It doesn't matter, he won't be around long." William said. "First, I set a card, then I activate Mass Possession! Now, I destroy all demon-type monsters on my side of the field and discard my hand. Then, I take control of the same number of your monsters! So, all my demons are gone…" The three demons exploded, leaving just blue traces hanging about where they had just stood. "…and I take control of all of your monsters except Khan!" Drake's three weaker monsters were each hit by the blue energy, and they moved to William's side of the field.

"So what are you going to do with them?" Drake said. "You have no cards in your hand!"

"I activate my spell card, Resources Controlled, which allows me to draw a number of cards equal to the number of your monsters I control! So I draw three!" He pulled the three cards off the top of his deck. "And I can finally call him out! You stopped me from summoning him once, but I'll get it done this time!"

"What's he rambling about?" Helen asked.

"Yeah, he never played Drake with this deck before." Flynn said. Matt had closed his eyes. "What's with you?"

"He's not talking about playing a card game. Remember the Sixth Gate?" Matt asked.

"You don't mean to say…" Keith said.

"Yeah."

"Shit."

"What are you talking about?" Julie asked. "You lost me."

"I'm going to sacrifice all three of your monsters to fulfill the summoning requirements of the last monster you'll ever see!" William said. Three tables appeared on his side of the field, and Drake's three monsters obediently laid down on them. "First, two souls for power!" He shouted, as spikes erupted from the tables with Alexander and Barton on them, spraying blood into the air. "And second, the soul of a pure one, in this case, a female light attribute monster!" A single, massive spike came down from the sky and impaled Nightingale in the heart, spilling blood everywhere. There was a huge eruption as a huge shape began to emerge from the ground. Drake gaped at it. The Sixth Gate had risen from the Shadow Realm and was sitting on the battlefield.

Then it opened, and a giant being stepped forth, but Drake couldn't see him. The creature was shrouded by darkness, covering all its features, but it reeked of a horrid power. Drake could hardly bear to look at it.

"That's the other card I was afraid of." Matt said. "It's the Monster behind the Sixth Gate."

"That's right, I just summoned the second most powerful monster in my deck!" William said, apparently proud of himself. "The Monster Behind the Sixth Gate (Hell/Demon/Effect, 6000/6000) will now attack Genghis Khan!"

An enormous hand reached out of the smog that covered the monster. It swung once, covering most of the field, and in a second the Khan was splattered across the ground. Drake felt the massive impact to the whole side of his body, and suddenly it felt like something had broken every bone in his body, and he collapsed.

Drake: 250 

**William: 3500**

"So how does it feel?!?" William shouted at him. "To taste the defeat?!? To know you're going to lose?!? Look at you, you mess, you can't even stand up!"

Drake didn't even try to stand up. His body was in shambles. The wounds weren't healing anymore. He could feel consciousness slipping away. There was blood leaking from the side of his head. His bones were twice as numerous as they should have been. And he knew he was done. There wasn't a monster in his deck that could help. And he had a feeling that he couldn't just bump it off the field with an effect. It was over.

"What, are you just going to lie there?" William said. "Get up so I can finish you off, or do you want me to just do it now?"

"Come on, Drake, get up." Matt said.

"What's the point?" Drake mumbled. "There's no way I can beat that thing…I can't even stand up… I can't even move my legs, damn it! It's over! We can't win!"

"How many times have we emerged from situations worse than this?"

"You've never had to face down a 6000 attack point monster!" Drake shouted.

"I _died_." Matt said. "I had been facing down _certain death_ for the prior day and then some. I think I've been in more hopeless situations than this before."

"Still! You've never had the fate of the world on you." Drake said.

"That should only be motivation to try one last time!" Julie shouted. "If not for the world, then at least for your friends! At least for me!"

A shock ran through his arm. He didn't know why. It seemed to have come from his duel disk, from the deck. It said "three."

_Three what?_ Drake thought, attempting to turn his head to look at his deck. Suddenly his neck snapped back together and his head moved. The shock happened again. His arms seemed to slid back together as did his legs. His back reassembled and he stood up. _Either the game was just taking a long time to work because of my life points, or something else is helping me._ Drake thought. _But, what?_

"So, you want me to crush you some more?" William said. "Seeing as you have no cards in your hand, I'm not too worried. I end my turn."

Drake drew a card. _That doesn't help. _He thought. _Especially if he summons another monster_. "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Is that all you've got?" William drew a card and added it to his hand. "Unfortunately, I don't have any monsters I can summon at the moment, else I would kill you now. So I'll just prepare to summon the Lord of Hell in a few turns. But until then, Sixth Gate monster, attack his facedown monster!" The monster raised its hand again and Drake's monster revealed itself as Joan of Arc. The hand came down, crushing her and spewing blood everywhere. Drake felt a crushing sensation, but nothing broke under the pressure.

_This is going on too long, and I've lost too much._ Drake thought. _If it goes on much longer, I'll die!_ "Are you… done?" Drake said, gasping a little.

"Yes."

Drake top decked again. _Still no good!_ "I set one more monster and end my turn."

"Good. I can summon next turn and kill you." William said, and drew a new card. "I attack your monster with the Demon of the Gate!" Another raised hand, another crushing blow, and Drake's Otto Von Bismarck was gone. "I set two cards and end my turn."

"…okay…" Drake gasped. His breath was very labored now. The attacks were wearing down on him, the sheer power of William's monster breaking him to pieces. He drew. _Well, this is the last thing I can do. _"I activate… Preparations for a New Assault… now, since I have…no cards on my field… I remove… all of the spell… and trap cards… in my graveyard… from the game. Then… I draw cards equal to… half the number of cards… that were removed…" Drake removed six cards from his graveyard and drew three more. A single card in the middle caught his eye. _This looks… it'll work._ "I now activate the final ability of the Monument… while there are at least ten Hero monsters… in my grave…I can remove them all… plus the Monument… to clean off your field."

"So what? You may destroy my facedown cards…" William said, sending them to the graveyard. "…but my monster can't be destroyed except by battle with one monster in the entire game!"

"Which I think… I am about to summon." Drake said. "I now have… no cards in my graveyard. And yet… I have over 20 cards… removed from the game. One of them is the Monument… so I can special summon this…" Drake placed the card on his duel disk, and a tall woman appeared on his side of the field. She carried a long, elegant sword, and bore a striking resemblance to Julie, except for one strange thing. She had Matt's deadly eyes. "…The Hero of the Shadows… Descendant of the Ancient Line (Light/Warrior/Effect, 6000/6000)."

"No! You can't have summoned that card!" William said. Then he regained his composure. "Ha… it doesn't matter. Next turn I am going to destroy you when I summon the Lord of Hell!"

"No… because you see… The Descendant gains 200 attack points for every monster I have removed from the game… and I have 16 of them, so that's 3200 extra attack points. (9200)"

"That's still not enough!" William said, though he lost his cool a little because of the unsightly amount of attack points that the Descendant had accumulated. "I'll still crush you!"

"No… I still have one card. An equip card. Heroic Devotion." Drake said, and played it. "It gives her 400 more points… (9600) and that will be the game."

"NO!!! I CAN'T LOSE NOW!!! I'VE COME TOO FAR!!!" William shouted, losing it.

"It's too late for regret now!" Matt said. "You are done for."

"Drake, kill that asshole!" Julie shouted.

"Descendant of the Ancient Line, attack his Monster…" Drake said, weakly pointing at William's beast. "… and end the game." The Descendant ran forward and slashed the monster several times. It fell apart in a spray of fluids as the Descendant leapt away from its corpse.

Drake: 250 

**William: 0**

William was still screaming as the wounds that had been inflicted on his monster hit him, too. Blood was spraying everywhere, and yet he was somehow still alive. A black vortex opened beneath him and he looked down into it, terrified.

"No…no… NO!!!" He shouted.

"You have failed me!" came an incredibly sinister voice. A huge hand appeared from out of the vortex, seized hold of William, and pulled him down into the black vortex in the ground, blood spraying everywhere from William as he tried to resist. Then the portal closed, and William was no more.

William's horrific end barely registered with Drake. He was barely standing. As the duel ended, he tottered, fell face down, and blacked out.

Author's note- Well??? Was it good enough? I sure hope so, it took me long enough to think out and write down. Ironically, this duel lasts for thirteen full turns. If you don't see the irony, check my username.

By the way, this isn't the last chapter.


	41. Aftermath

Chapter 41- Aftermath

Drake felt horrible. He couldn't remember much anything. His vision was either black or fuzzy. Everything seemed bathed in white, and there had been people rushing about everywhere. That much he knew. He knew he had collapsed immediately after defeating William, but he didn't know for how long he had been out. He was lost in time, with no idea what was going on. As he lay there, somewhere between life and death, he could see the whole arc of the last two years. The initial attack, Matt's heroics, the last duel with the old Chancellor Jacobs, William attacking him, waking up in the middle of the night to fiends breaking into the hospital, another fight, his distrust of Matt, Matt's horrific death, getting caught near the Point, losing Julie, fighting back to rescue her, Matt's return, the final encounters with the fiends and William, and all the hair-raising close calls in between. He remembered them all.

_At least I can be content in the knowledge that the world can rebuild._ Drake said. _Even if I'm not a part of it. Julie, I'm sorry for what I'm going to put you through if I die…_

_Are you really going to give up on life like that?_ Came a questioning voice in his ear.

_Well,_ Drake thought. _I've been through a hell of a lot. I'm tired, I'm broken. I'll take death. The world's been saved. I've done what I needed to do…_

_So you just want to abandon the world and your friends and not see the fruits of your hard labor? For me, that's always been the best part, seeing the outcome of what's happened as a result of what I've done. Like last year, when I left the academy, it was a great feeling to know that I got you all through that hideous encounter alive and virtually unharmed. It also made me feel good that you had all become stronger for it. You don't want to see something even greater than that?_

_Well, I suppose I would like to see that._

_Then, sit up._

Drake sat up, and his vision cleared. He was sitting in a bed in a hospital room, where it was he had no idea. Julie was sitting next to his bed, looking tired, disheveled and bloody, and Matt was standing right behind her, both of his hands on her shoulders. As soon as Drake was able to process all this, Julie hugged him and wouldn't let go.

"You survived! I was really worried that you weren't going to make it." She said.

"I probably shouldn't have." Drake murmured.

"Nah, you would've broken it eventually." Matt said. "You'd realize what you stood to lose by dying at some point, I think." He had released his grip on Julie when she had leaned forward to hug Drake. Now he paced to the opposite side of Drake's bed and sat down. "I have to say Drake, I'm very impressed with you. You defeated the second most powerful deck in the entire world. And under the most extreme circumstances possible, as well."

"I had help." Drake said. "Something in the deck… it shocked me, and I felt better."

"Probably the Descendant card. Remember, each of those cards contains a certain amount of the soul of who it represents. That card doesn't represent a single person, but rather a line of people, namely those who come from Julie's line. When she tried to motivate you onwards, it likely tapped a power within the card that gave you more strength."

"So you're saying… that I was part of a card?" Julie asked, still not releasing Drake.

"Sort of. The Descendant card takes on the approximate form of whoever the current Guardian of the Shadows is. At this time, it's you. I'm sure you noticed." Matt said.

"I did." Drake said. "Except for the eyes. They were yours, I swear it."

"Hm. Interesting." Matt said.

"What happened after I fell over?" Drake asked.

"Well, I think you saw William get killed." Julie said. "Serves him right, the bastard. Then, all these fiends started rushing in on us, for a reason I can't understand. Matt knocked me down and shielded me with his body, so I couldn't see what happened. Why did you do that?" She turned to Matt.

"I didn't want you to die. You still have something you need to do." Matt said. "After I shielded you, I sent out my spirits to destroy the fiends. I swear, every last one in the world had been automatically summoned to that one place. Keith has been grievously injured…" Matt gestured at a bed behind him, where Keith lay prone, hooked up to several machines. "…but he should be okay after a while. Helen and Flynn were injured badly, but not so bad as to be incapacitated. They've already recovered."

"How long have I been out?" Drake asked.

"At least four days." Julie said. "I'm not sure, I never left your side to check. I was too worried about you."

"That's… nice of you." Drake said. He was a little shocked that she had probably gotten no sleep for four days. "Shouldn't you go get some sleep now?"

"I'm not too tired." Julie said, almost falling asleep as she said it. Drake put his arm around her and she was instantly asleep. Matt allowed himself a small smile.

"We were able to drive back the fiends." Matt said. "It took us a while, even with my manpower. Fortunately, they neglected to shoot you because you seemed to be dead. I made a quick trip to the Vault of Souls and released the people there, then got you and the others to a hospital that had someone in it as fast as I could. The fiends have killed a lot of people, but it wasn't too hard. The doctor here is world-class, you've received good treatment."

"What kind of impact has this had on the world?" Drake asked.

"We've lost over half the world population." Matt said, his brow furrowing. "It's probably going to go down as one of the greatest tragedies of all time, except that no one but us and the UN knows exactly what happened."

"But the UN died, didn't they?" Drake asked. "They got hit by a nuclear missile."

"They were in a bunker…" Keith murmured from his bed. "They survived…"

"Ah, good, you've come around too." Matt said, walking over to check on him. "How does it feel to almost be torn in half?"

"It feels like I'm a piece of paper." Keith said. Matt laughed.

"Don't worry, you'll mend. You know, keep this up and you'll end up like me!" Matt said.

"What, dead?" Drake said.

"Close to it." Matt said. "Speaking of which. My official funeral is next week. I would be honored if all of you would attend. After that has happened, I need to leave. My time is up, and I'm pushing the limit as it is. Thankfully the Big Guy is benevolent." He bowed his head.

"We'll be there." Drake said. "Or at least, I will."

"Interesting." Matt said. "First to doubt, and yet, first to speak here? Interesting, Drake."

Drake felt his face flush. "That was foolish of me." He mumbled.

"I'll say." Keith said weakly. "I'll be there if they let me out of here." Just then the door opened, and Flynn and Helen walked in. Flynn's left arm was wrapped in a wad of bandages, and there was a fresh-looking scar on his forehead. He seemed bothered by neither of them.

"Ah, Drake's finally up. You guys coming?" Flynn said.

"What do you mean?" Drake asked.

"You've been released from the hospital." Helen said. She was supporting herself with a crutch under her right arm, and she had a cast on the last three fingers of that hand.

"Isn't it a bit early for that?" Keith said from his corner.

"Well, you see, there are a lot of people who don't want to wait to meet us." Flynn said. "Lots of important people, and stuff. People who survived."

"I see." Drake said. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as you can." Matt said. "The helicopter just landed."

----------------------------------

Drake slowly lowered himself into a chair at the table. He was relieved to be off the helicopter, he couldn't stand the sensation of being that high off the ground with so little around him. Matt was standing in the corner, apparently the other people in the room couldn't see him. Julie was sitting next to Drake, still sleepy but looking better since she had slept all the way there. Flynn had been seated two seats to Drake's right, Helen three, and Keith was on Drake's left.

Drake barely knew anyone in the room. There were a few people who looked vaguely familiar, but the lights were so low that it was hard to tell who each was. One at the end of the table stood up and addressed them. He seemed youngish, probably thirty, and had brown hair. He was wearing a simple shirt and tie, no suit like all the other people in the room except for the man to his right.

"So." He said. "You saved the world from these…" He looked down at a book next to his hand. "…fiends, then?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Flynn said.

"No reason to be rude, now!" said an elderly man to the first's left. He looked like he was the oldest in the room. Drake seemed to recall that he was a psychiatrist. "We're not here to interrogate you about your sanity or anything. We know this happened. Some of us barely survived it. So you don't have to worry about not being believed."

"Yes, he's right." said a woman. She was seated quite far back into the shadows of the room, so Drake couldn't get a good look at her. "You don't need to be rude. We're here to discuss if you five want recognition of any kind."

"Do we?" Keith asked, turning to the others.

"Do we…" Drake mused.

"Do we?" Helen asked. "Isn't that kind of a rhetorical question?"

"Possibly." Matt said, his voice a hoarse whisper that Drake was sure only they could hear. "But you see… then you're famous, and fame tends to go to people's heads. It could be bad for you."

"We don't want much." Flynn said. "If anything at all."

"But you must get something! You virtually single-handedly saved the world from these monstrosities!" said an excitable-looking man near the middle of the table. "At least a memorial, or a monument of some kind!"

"Dean, you just want the money it would bring." said the man to the first's right. He was the only one who had spoken without standing, and he was the only person apart from the first man not wearing a full suit. His fingers were interlocked in front of his face, covering most of it from view. "So sit down."

"Shut your mouth, Kaiba, no one likes you here."

"Silence, both of you." said the first man. "My name is Matt Jurik. If you want to be recognized for this, I can get it for you. Almost anything you want, much like I did for your friend who I knew before you guys. If you don't want to be recognized at all, I can keep this quiet. Or I can just let it proliferate. But realize that that is often the worst way to go."

"This all started at the Academy." Helen said. "We should have something at the Academy, for remembrance of it. At least that."

"And another thing." Keith said. "There should be something remembering those who died because of it."

"And one last thing." Julie said. "Someone very important died during this. I would much appreciate it if something was built for him."

"Who is it?" said Dean. "Which person?"

"Matt."

There was a considerable shock wave through the room. It seemed that, though she hadn't used a last name, they all knew who she was talking about. Only Matt J and Kaiba seemed unfazed by the last request.

"Outrageous!" said the woman.

"You can't expect us to meet a demand like that!" said another man who hadn't said anything else thus far. Drake seemed to recall that he owned a large chain of banks.

"He's a convicted criminal!" said Dean. "If we made something for him, there would be a public uprising! Absolutely not!"

"QUIET." Matt J said, his voice raised. "Think about it. Is it so much to ask for a man who gave his life for the world?"

"Oh, shut up." said the banker. "We all know where your sympathies lie."

"Right where they should." said D.D. MacArthur, walking in the door with Drake's dad and Brooklyn. "I have here the only witness to the massacre with which Matt is charged."

"Who, that short pudgy kid?" said Dean.

"First, he is an adult." Drake's dad said. "Second, he could probably kill you with no problems, so you shouldn't insult him."

"I bring forth evidence that Matt could be considered clinically insane at the time of the massacre." Brooklyn threw the key onto the table. "Look, but do not touch. That is the key of the Shadow Realm. Whoever touches it is stricken by an insatiable desire for blood and death, and goes mad with it until they are forced to release it. On that day, Matt touched the key, driving himself insane and making him kill those people."

"Lies, all lies." said the woman.

"It can't be." The psychologist said. "They give the same description here." He took Matt J's book and slid it across the table so that it was next to the coin. There was an identical picture of the coin in the book. "If this is true, and after this there is no reason to believe it isn't, then, due to insanity, Matt must be cleared of all charges. Agreed?"

There was discontent murmuring around the table. For some reason, each of them seemed to have something against Matt. Then Kaiba spoke again.

"Alright you worthless little slimeballs. Stop blathering about something that has been proven so obviously to you that it's irrefutable."

"Shut up Kaiba, no one likes you here." said Dean again.

"And I'm pretty sure that not too many people here like you either." Matt J said. There was general agreement. "Now, let's put old contempt behind us. What we once thought has been proven wrong. Let's move on."

"Fine then, we'll give the little girl what she wants." Dean said, throwing Julie a harsh look. Her returning state seemed to knock him off balance.

"I'll take care of the memorial to the dead." said the old psychologist. "I have several friends who have access to the lists of those who died, it'll help."

"I think I'll take care of the personal memorial." Matt J said, glancing at Julie. "As no one else is likely to take it."

"And the other one? The one at the Academy?" said the woman.

"I'll take care of that." said Kaiba, still not moving in his chair.

"That's good then, you can all go now." Matt J said, gesturing at the business people surrounding him. "Except for you… eight, I want you to stay here."

Drake had just been getting up, but he sat back down again. He had no idea what the powerful corporate leader could want, but he was a bit intrigued to find out.

-----------------------------------------------------

Drake stepped off of Matt J's private airliner. Matt hadn't asked much, just some finer details of the attacks that he wanted to be certain of. Then he had offered them a ride to Washington D.C., where Matt's funeral was scheduled to take place an hour later. Evidently, prior to the plane ride, Matt's body had been recovered from his dying place on Hawaii and returned to the States. Matt J had apparently gotten the Egyptian government to issue a pardon posthumously while they were in-flight, and Drake had no doubts that soon Matt would go from hated convict to international hero.

_It's a pity he's dead,_ Drake thought. _This kind of stuff always comes too late. It has to be one of the greatest problems in the world; we're so concerned with making it look like we're doing something about everything that we don't care if we hurt an innocent person in the process._

The church was packed, the casket up at the front. It was closed, but there were lots of portraits around it, of Matt when he was younger, kinder-looking, and less touched by the hardships of the world, of Matt with strangely familiar looking relatives (familiar looking to Drake, at least, he couldn't put a finger on why they looked familiar), of Matt in a bloody soldier's uniform, with holes everywhere in the fabric and medals hanging proudly from his chest, and the last one, taken nearly eight years previous, of Matt standing next to the other Matt on the stairs leading to a plane.

_A window into what Matt was before that incident, _Drake thought. _I kinda wish I knew him before he had to go through all of that stuff. _He took a seat in the second row. Julie sat down next to him.

"He looks… really different in those pictures. Almost happy." She said.

"It seems to vanish as the years go by." Keith said. He had sat down at the end of the row on the other side of the aisle. "It's as if he slowly realizes what's going to happen to him in the future. That last picture, you can tell that smile is almost fake. It's as if he knows that it's just a fleeting moment."

"Keith, as usual you think too deeply." Drake said, shaking his head.

"It's starting." Ashley said. She had snuck in behind Drake. She was almost as stealthy as Matt was. "Is he in here?"

"Who?"

"Matt."

"I don't think so." Drake craned his neck and looked around the room. Matt was nowhere to be found. "He's probably taking care of something. Either that or he's here and we just can't see him."

"I can't understand why he wouldn't be here…" Ashley said. Two transparent arms wrapped around her shoulders. Matt looked over her shoulder.

"Come on, would I miss the chance to see you one last time?" Matt asked.

"I didn't think so." Ashley said, putting her hands on his.

"They're starting." Keith said, looking at the end of the aisle. Drake watched as the pastor came in down the aisle, walking slowly. He was a tall man, and going quite bald. He seemed quite old. He was dressed very properly in a dark suit. He stopped for a moment at the casket, looked at it for a few seconds, then stepped up onto the raised platform behind it and began to speak.

Drake didn't hear most of it. His attention was somewhere else. He was still thinking about the pictures of Matt's relative. He couldn't get it out of his head how familiar they looked. He found himself unable to focus on what the pastor was saying and just kept thinking about where he had seen those people before.

Fortunately the pastor didn't speak for very long. After only about ten minutes he was done and sat down in the front row. Julie leaned over and touched Drake on the arm.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"What? Oh, nothing." Drake lied. "Nothing's wrong."

"Do you remember anything that he just said?" she asked.

"Um… yeah! Of course I do." Drake said.

"Because he just said that it was an open mike." Julie said. She pointed at the mike. People had lined up to the left of it. "Are you going to say anything?"

"Uh…" Drake tried to think of something to say, but it just didn't come. "I can't think of anything to say." Julie sighed.

"How can you not, after all he did for us?"

Drake thought a bit. "I just can't. I never was much of a speaker."

Julie sighed and sat back. "Neither was I, and I can't find words either."

-----------------------------------------

Drake didn't remember much of the remainder of the funeral. Most of it was just faceless, nameless people reminiscing. Most of them hadn't known Matt after the incident in Egypt. Drake only knew Matt Jurik, Ashley, and MacArthur when they went up. After that, Ashley sang something (she had a great voice, but Drake didn't remember the song much) and it was over. He stood up and walked out of the church, with Julie, Flynn, and Keith behind him.

"So, what now?" Keith asked.

"Who knows?" Flynn said. "I don't know if they'll be able to re-open the Academy, so I guess they'll probably send us all home."

"I don't think it'll be quite that easy." Keith said. "This was an apocalyptic event, the death toll is in the billions. Who's to say our families didn't get killed in the chaos?"

"That's a horrible thing to say!" Julie said. "Then again, I have no family to speak of… which really, really stinks. I'd hate for one of you guys to lose your entire family."

"Isn't that Matt over there?" Drake asked, pointing. Matt was standing near a balcony, apparently speaking to a large mass of translucent people. Several solid people walked past without so much as glancing at him. Drake, Julie, Keith and Flynn walked over to him.

"…so as you can see it's over. The curse is done with." Matt was saying.

"Yes… even though some of our contempt still burns strong…" one of the ghosts said. "We have no choice but to lift our curse. Rest in peace, at last." With that, all of the spirits vanished. Matt turned and looked at them.

"Well, that's that." He said. "I have to leave now. Staying this long was a stretch, but I must stay a little longer to say goodbye."

"That's nice." Julie said.

"I suppose, but I have bad news. Thanks to William's tampering, the Shadow Realm is unstable. The gates aren't as firm as they have been, and it's possible that some of the power hunger that he had has been transferred to the malicious fiends in the fifth level."

"So you're saying that this is going to happen again?" Keith said, unable to keep the despair out of his voice. "And soon, too?"

"It's not that simple." Matt said, sighing.

"Why not?" Drake asked.

"Well, because of the extensive amount of gates that William opened, the Realm has become unbalanced, and someone needs to get it back to that balance by locking down the gates again. And there's only one person who can do it. Someone who has the power of the shadows." Matt looked at Julie.

"Not again!" Drake said. "So, she has to go back into that hell and lock it up? Then what?"

"It's not even that simple." Matt said, and sighed again. "Because to lock the gates down takes a long time. And after that, the Shadow Realm needs to have the guardian maintain a vigilance over the realm so that no one will tamper with it again, at least in the lifetime of that guardian."

"So I have to spend the rest of my life in there because of this?" Julie said sadly.

"That's not fair!" Drake said.

"When have these past few weeks cared about fair?" Flynn muttered.

"It hasn't." Keith said.

"Precisely." Matt said. "But there is something I haven't mentioned. I said someone with the power of the shadows. It doesn't necessarily have to be a direct descendant of the ancient line. The relatives of the descendant also possess some of the power."

"So all we have to do is find one of her relatives?" Drake said. "How close does this relative have to be? How soon do we have to find them?"

"Slow down your runaway horse there, Drake, and stay with us for a moment." Matt said. "I'm going to tell you something that will make your 'search' muuuuuuuch easier."

"Good, what?" Keith said. "I don't fancy raiding the world for Julie's relatives."

"Good luck finding them." Julie said bitterly. "They're all dead."

"Ouch."

"Not all of them." Matt said. "I was raiding some old records at the Point during the funeral when I came across a family tree thing-"

"Wait, you were at the funeral!" Flynn said.

"I left on a hunch that I could find something on this." Matt said. "And I did. I discovered that I am actually related to Julie."

Drake blanched. So did everyone else. "You have got to be kidding me." Keith said. "How the heck did we not know about this before?!?"

"Well, it's not a very direct relationship." Matt said. "I'm her great-grandmother's second daughter's third son's nephew."

"Which and the what?!?" Drake said. "You lost me." Matt repeated what he had said. "That's confusing."

"Somewhat, but does that put you close enough to be able to do it?" Keith said.

"Sure. I've got enough of the Shadow Power to do it, and I will, even if I have to stay there for eternity." Matt said. "And, unfortunately, I will. Because I've already died once, and now I'm taking on this responsibility, I'm going to have to become the permanent guardian of the Shadows. I'll have to live there and protect it until the end of time. But the good news is, it won't bother you guys here any more. And the burden of the ancient line will be lifted." He looked at Julie and smiled a sad smile. "Your trouble is over."

Julie instantly hugged him. "Thank you…" she said. When she pulled away, Matt's appearance had changed. He was now wearing a white robe, and his skin had become fairer, all the scars were gone, his side had healed, and his face was normal. But he was still translucent.

"And with that, I have to go." He said. "If you ever need me, don't hesitate to call, and I'll try to bend the rules and get out of there to see you." With that, he shimmered and vanished. For a moment, they all just stood there.

"That's too bad." Flynn said. "He's finally gone."

"But he's alive! Sort of." Julie said.

"And in eternal confinement to a hellish place." Keith pointed out. "Though I'm sure he'll make the most of it."

"But it's over." Drake said.

"Yeah." Julie said. "It's over at last."


	42. The Last Chapter

The Last Chapter

Author's Note: As a writer, I hate to leave loose ends. So I'm going to fill in some of the details of each major and some of the semi-major character's later lives. If you have any further questions about what I wrote, i.e. a section of the story, pm me and ask, and I'll try to answer. So here we go…

Whatever happened to…

Helen- After the second invasion and the death of the former Chancellor Bentz, Professor Helen became the chancellor of the American Academy, a position she retained for twenty years. After the twenty years had passed, the damage that had been caused by having her soul torn from her body three times forced her to retire and accept a relatively inactive lifestyle (though, admittedly, that did not significantly affect her card game skills). She would be respected in the dueling community as a deck construction expert until the day of her death. Many duelists started their careers by consulting her.

MacArthur- He returned to his position as General of the UN peacekeeping force after the second invasion. He led a successful career as a soldier, and retired to live in a relative peace after almost forty years of service.

Keith "The Brain" Natran- He finished off his four years of education at the American Academy after the second invasion. He maintained his reputation as an intellectual genius when he scored five consecutive 100's on his mid-terms and finals. Afterwards, he gained a reputation as an expert on duel theory and later taught at the American Academy. After Chancellor Helen's retirement, Keith took over as Chancellor and served until he died. His little innovations and ability to teach people to think ahead gave many the keys to their success in professional duel leagues.

Flynn "Sarge" Tager- After failing to find a tag partner in his first two years at the American Academy, Flynn dropped out and went around the world in search of one. Again unsuccessful, Flynn rejoined the army and served under MacArthur for five years, rising to (what else) sergeant, but never going higher because, as MacArthur put it, "He's too good a leader to remain bottom rung, and yet too good a soldier to be made an officer." While teaching the game to some of his comrades in his barracks, he was impressed with the natural skill of one of his female comrades, one Andrea Neural, and took her on as his private student. After both were discharged from the army with high honors, Andrea and Flynn became a highly successful tag team and were later married. They had one son (named after his father, of course) and would become the longest lasting tag team of all time, dueling together for over 35 years.

Chris "Brooklyn"- For a long time, his roll in stopping the second invasion was never revealed. However, about two years afterwards, he was brought into the spotlight. He jumped into the pro league for a while on popular demand, but backed out after a few years of the other duelists complaining that he was cheating with his deck of unique cards. He was a visible public figure for the remainder of his life, greatly influencing the course of the world. He never actually lived anywhere near Brooklyn, not did he ever go near it.

Matt "The Guardian of the Shadows"- Matt would spend eternity controlling the Shadow Realm and preventing foolish forays to gain its powers, as was the path he had chosen. Those who met him while he was doing his duties described him as a sad man, a little ragged and tired-looking. However, he did make visits to the Earth realm during the lifetimes of his old friends, appearing at important times and giving them advice if they needed it. After all of his old friends died, Matt only left the Realm in order to head off some misguided person's attempt to harness his realm's powers. He was never corrupted by the shadows, despite living amongst them for thousands of years.

Ashley- Matt's supposed girlfriend was very sad for a week after the funeral, and soon vanished from public life for about four years afterward. She suddenly re-appeared at that time, doing various good deeds across the world for no particular reason and with no particular direction. Rumors suggest that she discovered a way to obtain the power of the shadows, and that she would descend into the Shadow Realm to join Matt in his eternal bondage there.

Julie "The Underdog" Daran- Hey body and mind tarnished from the fiend attacks, Julie was not quite the same for the remainder of the year. After many failed psychological therapy sessions, Chancellor Helen sent for Matt, who took Julie into the Shadow Realm for two years to help her recuperate. She returned in much better condition (she said that it was surprisingly nice in the Realm when the fiends weren't trying to kill you) and went straight to the professionals of dueling and became legendary for never being favored and yet almost always winning.

Drake "King of Games" Stizen- He finished his remaining two years at the American Academy strong, moving into the Gold Dorm (though it was more on dueling than on improving test scores). He too jumped right into the pro leagues, and in just two years he was crowned King of Games as age 20. He and Julie went out for a long time, and after much ado that was mostly caused by Julie's condition, finally got married. Their first child was born four years after the marriage, and Julie named him Matt in honor of their friend. Drake would retain his title for fifty years, a world record. He was inducted into the Dueling Hall of Fame on the day before he died.

Whew! That's the last chapter done, and with that, the circle is complete. The trilogy is over. I hope that those of you who stuck it out with me really enjoyed it. I think that next I'm going to move onto a story based in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and then I may move into a Naruto fanfic, if you care for my future works.

For God and Greater Glory,

invincible13matt

Fin.


End file.
